A Veritable Cornucopia [STA - 2]
by C-Man
Summary: Living through sophomore year in high school was never something Xander wanted to repeat, but at least he knows what's coming this time. Doesn't he? Part Two of Second Time Around series. B/X
1. Bewitched

Title: A Veritable Cornucopia - STA 2

Author: C-Man

Disclaimer: You can't sue me, I'm broke! Ha! But I still don't own these characters. In fact, I stole the story concept too, so I own nothing!

Rating: PG-13, I think

Summary: Living through sophomore year in high school was never something Xander wanted to repeat, but at least he knows what's coming. Doesn't he? 

Spoilers: Basically all of season one, with references from throughout the series.

Distribution: Hey, get your grubby hands away from my fic!!! Actually, I could care less. Want? Take. Have.

Feedback: Absolutely. It's like a drug. umrohrig@cc.umanitoba.ca

Notes: This is Part Two of the "Second Time Around" series. This part will encompass all the events and stuff that happens between "The Harvest" and "Prophecy Girl".

... - thoughts

* * * * * - time passes  
  
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__**_Chapter VII - Bewitched_**_  
  
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_January 27, 1997_

_4:00 PM_

_SHS Library  
  
_

  
  


Rupert Giles stepped out of his office carrying his late-afternoon cup of tea in one hand and balancing an open book in the other. As he did most days after classes had let out, he put aside the regular work of a high school librarian and delved into his collection of occult lore. Whether researching an immediate threat or merely expanding his already impressive knowledge of the supernatural, it was one of the few joys in his life.

The Slayer assigned to him by his overseers on the Watcher's Council, Buffy Summers, was late arriving for their regular after-school meeting. Which was not surprising in the least to Giles. Buffy showed great potential as Slayer, but she was much too cocksure and individualistic for his tastes. She insisted on maintaining a healthy social life while carrying out her sacred duties at the same time.

It had to do, Giles guessed, with the fact that she had not been trained beforehand by the Watcher's Council. Normally, potential Slayers were identified well before they were called, and brought over to the Council's drab way of thinking. Miss Summers, however, had been called out of the blue, at a much younger age than most Slayers. Her normal 'American teenager' way of thinking had not been quashed. As a result, she'd tried to integrate her Slaying into her current life, instead of letting it become all-encompassing, as the Council dictated.

Of course, Buffy's track record was all but proving the Council guidelines wrong. She'd been Slayer for less than a year and had already racked up more kills than most Slayers get in their unfortunately short lifetimes. She'd slain three vampires over three hundred years old in that time, a nearly unprecedented feat. It was all starting to shift Giles' opinion away from reprimanding Buffy's 'oversocialization,' as the Council called it, toward just accepting it.

He still had a long way to go on that score, though.

Giles set his tea to the side as he sat down at the table, still engrossed in the old tome he was reading. He was looking for information on a binding spell for a certain demon the group had discovered soon after the Harvest. A demon whose existence Xander had clued him in on.

The day after the Harvest, Xander had paid Giles a visit after school. Giles was slightly uncomfortable around the young man at first. In their first meeting, Xander had called Giles 'Ripper,' a nickname known only to his less than respectable former compatriots back in England. As 'Ripper,' Giles had committed acts of which he was not proud, and he'd tried to bury his past when he joined the Watcher's Council full time. Xander had put him at ease, however, when he said he wouldn't tell the others what he knew about the Watcher's past, until the time came. Xander wouldn't say what he meant by that little addition.

Xander did, however, make one thing clear. Giles would only have his help under one condition: he didn't tell the Council about him. Xander said he didn't trust them as far as he could throw them. Giles had a sneaking suspicion why that was. If he was from the future, and Buffy survived past her eighteenth birthday, he would know about the Cruciamentum. It was a test of the Slayer's natural skills that went back centuries in Council tradition. Three out of every four Slayers ever to undertake it had perished. It was not an exercise Giles was looking forward to. With a little less reluctance than he thought he would muster up, Giles conceded the point.

After his reassurances, Xander had told Giles about two future threats that could be nullified quickly and easily. The first was a demon called Moloch the Corrupter, who had been banished into a book centuries before. Xander explained that the demon had broken free in his timeline when the book was scanned onto a computer. Giles had scoffed that those 'dread machines' were nothing but trouble, anyway. They had spent the rest of the night searching for the book, and eventually found it. Giles took it home with him and locked it in a safe place until a binding spell could be found to permanently tie Moloch to the tome he possessed.

The second problem was one Giles had a hard time believing. A giant praying mantis in human form running amuck biting the heads off virgins? It sounded ludicrous. Or, at least it did until Xander reminded Giles of an old associate from Oxford with degrees in entomology that had encountered such a beast before. Chagrined, Giles contacted his old friend Carlyle the next day and had gotten the information out of the institutionalized old man to confirm Xander's story.

A few days later, after Xander had found the creature's home (his memory had become a bit foggy after four years), Giles, Xander and Buffy went in after it, armed with a machete and a tape player with recorded bat sonar. Giles had knocked on the door, with Buffy and Xander flanking him, their hands behind their backs concealing their weapons. Giles was struck dumb by the tall beauty that answered and felt an almost instant, lustful attraction to her. He kept telling himself afterwards that it was only the pheromones the creature was giving off.

When he saw Ms. French, Xander brought the tape recorder out and pushed play. A high-pitched, almost inaudible screeching filled the air, and the woman before them ... for lack of a better phrase, morphed into a six foot tall, green insect. Paralyzed by the sound, Ms. French could do nothing when Buffy leapt forward and kicked her back inside the house. For the next minute or so Buffy hacked the monster to pieces with the two men looking on, grimacing. That done, Xander led them downstairs, where they found a nest of huge eggs and several human-sized cages. They chopped the unborn offspring into mulch, and then went on their way.

Giles sighed over his reading. It had been a very strange month.

Just then, the library doors opened, and Giles looked up to see Buffy walking in. His jaw dropped at the sight of her. She was practically skipping into the library, waving red pompoms around. She wore a short red skirt and a yellow long sleeve top. Giles had been in this country long enough to recognize the general ensemble of a cheerleader. Those pea-brained, well-endowed girls that pranced around the sidelines at basketball and American (_American_ he emphasized in his head) football games. His Slayer wanted to be a _cheerleader_.

Giles stood up from his reading, staring at Buffy incredulously. "What in God's name do you think you're doing?"

Buffy stopped skipping and gave her Watcher an odd look. "Showing school spirit?" she asked hesitantly.

Giles walked over to the other end of the table still glaring at her. He shook his head disbelievingly "This is madness! What can you have been thinking!? You are theSlayer. Lives depend on you!" Giles said, exasperated. He started pacing in front of Buffy at this point. "I make allowances for your youth, but I expect a certain amount of responsibility, and instead of which you enslave yourself to this-this ... _Cult_!?"

Confused, Buffy looked down at her outfit. "You don't like the colors?" she asked innocently.

"I'd," Giles sighed, aggravated. "Do you, um, do you ignore everything I say as a, as a rule?"

"No, I believe that's your trick."

Giles would have moaned out loud if his dignity would have allowed it. He tried a tack he knew almost immediately would fail. "You have a sacred birthright, Buffy. You were chosen to destroy vampires, not to ... wave pompoms at people. And as your Watcher, I forbid it."

Buffy glared at him. "And you'll be stopping me how?"

Sighing again, Giles responded. "By appealing to your common sense, if such a creature exists."

"Sorry to say, Giles," a voice called out from the door. Slayer and Watcher turned to see Xander standing there. "But I think Buff slayed_ that _creature a looong time ago."

Buffy cast a narrow eyed glare his way, placing her hands on her hips. "Speak for yourself Mr. Can't-Tell-An-Insect-From-A-Woman."

Xander gasped in betrayal, and angrily pointed at her. "That's the last embarrassing moment of my past I'm ever sharing with you, you ... pompom-waving hussy!"

"Oh yeah, you ... fashion-victim of the year!?"

"Yeah!!" he shouted back. They glared at each other for a few more seconds. Suddenly, Xander perked up and his look of anger vanished instantly. "So, ready for tryouts Buffster?"

Buffy's expression also completely softened, and she grinned back. "You better believe it!" she said, then turned to leave and jauntily walked toward Xander. "Oh, and Giles," she threw over her shoulder. "Don't get your tweed boxers in a bind. This won't affect my slaying."

Giles simply stared at the departing duo, marveling again at the insanity that was teenage behavior.  
  
  
  


Xander could not believe how well things had been going lately. Since the Harvest, Buffy had not encountered a single vampire on her nightly patrols. It seemed the Master's forces had been hurt even more than he'd thought. They'd also taken care of two of the biggest mistakes he remembered the Scoobies making in sophomore year: Bug Lady and the book demon. Xander himself had gotten back into his old high school routine, and, wonder of wonders, he was actually *coasting* through his classes. All the carpentry work he'd done made geometry easy, and all the reading and researching on demons-of-the-week made history and english tolerable.

He had gotten back into best buddy mode with Willow and Jesse. Having Jesse back was great. After he had died, Xander never really made any guy friends. Oz and Riley being exceptions, but they left before he could bump them up to best friend status. They talked about guy stuff that Willow or Buffy never understood or cared about. The number one topic, of course, was chicks. Xander had wondered if he could set Willow up with their life long best friend, but that idea was squelched by Jesse's obliviousness to Willow as anything but his best friend. When he'd asked Jesse about it, he'd been given a look that said, 'Are you insane?' It reminded Xander of his own obliviousness to Willow's crush on him in those early years.

The last, and most important, reason for Xander's current happiness was, of course, Buffy. They'd been hanging out with each other more than they had with anyone else since she'd come to Sunnydale. The initial awkwardness had been surpassed after a few days, and they'd become fast friends. And both had been hinting at more. Innuendoes were hurled back and forth. Furtive glances taken when one thought the other wasn't looking. Buffy wore her short, short skirts and tight, tight shirts, and Xander spent three months allowance on a half-decent wardrobe and a little gift he was about to bestow. The situation had really hit home to Xander last Thursday when Buffy bumped into Owen Thurman in the hallway and not even given him a second glance. That's when he realized it.

She was infatuated with him. _She_, Buffy Summers, was infatuated with _him_, Xander Harris. He was giddy for the rest of the weekend.

So, as they walked down the hall to the gym, (actually, Xander walked, Buffy was bouncing and shaking her pompoms) Xander decided to move things forward.

"Hey, Buff, I've got somethin' here for ya," he said, reaching into his backpack.

"Oooh, give it to me, Xand," she said with a smirk.

He almost tripped over his feet when he heard those words come out of her mouth.

"First day with your new feet?" she asked.

"Fine," Xander said. "Mock me. Now, you're not getting your gift."

"Gift?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, a good luck present for your tryouts. But now..."

"Oh please, Xand, please! It would mean ever so much to me," she begged, batting her eyelashes and pouting.

That combo never failed to break Xander's resolve, even though he was going to give in anyway. He smiled and pulled a small box out of his bag.

"Are you gonna propose?" Buffy asked.

"Nah, that's next week," he answered, and handed it to her.

Buffy eagerly accepted it and opened it. She gasped and her eyes widened at what was inside, before breaking out in a wide smile. Check and Mate. The White Knight checks the Black King

Buffy carefully extracted the stylized gold cross necklace from its box. Light glinted off it as it twirled within her grasp. Xander had purposely picked out something that would put Angel's silver cross necklace to shame, even if they would never be compared.

"Xander, it's beautiful," Buffy said in a breathy tone.

"Well, then it's got the perfect owner," Xander stated with a soft smile. Buffy blushed and smiled shyly at that. "Besides, it's as practical as it is becoming. Think of it as your last line of defense against any vamp that tries to put the bite on ya."

She was smiling her heart-attack-inducing half-smile at Xander as he tried to lighten things up. "Thank you, it's the best 'good luck in your cheerleader tryouts' gift I've ever gotten." Buffy stepped closer to him, stood on her tip toes and gave Xander a lingering peck on the cheek.

Xander was surprised at her show of tender affection, but there was not the slightest possibility in perpetuity throughout the universe that he was going to complain. He smiled down at the blond beauty as she clasped the necklace together behind her neck. "All right. Go knock 'em dead, Buff! Not literally though. Unless you wanna take out some of the competition?"

Her laughter at his stupid joke just made his day.  
  
  
  


* * * * *  
  
  
  
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_4:30 PM_

_SHS Gymnasium  
  
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Jesse was in heaven. Or what he hoped heaven would be like when he died. Watching the hottest girls in school dressed in short skirts and clingy sweaters bouncing, flipping, stretching and rolling around would certainly be an ideal way to spend eternity.

"Jesse, pull your tongue back in your mouth," Willow said, standing beside him.

He was started out of his drooling trance by his friend's words of warning. "Yeah. Yeah, I know."

"Did you even hear what I said?" Willow asked, smirking.

"Yes. Yes I did." Jesse said.

"Whatever," Willow said rolling her eyes. The cheerleaders were winding down their warm-ups. "Where's Xander?"

"Oh, uh, he went to get Buffy from Giles at the-the Library. She was running a little late," Jesse saw Willow's face drop a little at the mention of their new friend. Or rather the mention of Xander being anywhere near her. Jesse wasn't as blind as everyone thought. He knew how Willow felt about Xander. It was obvious to everyone who cared to look, except for the object of her affections himself. Jesse also saw the way Xander and Buffy acted around each other, and it was equally obvious that they were headed towards 'datesville' pretty soon. Unfortunately, that meant Willow was going to get hurt, as she so easily did.

How does he do it? Jesse wondered to himself. Xander somehow managed to get two great girls to want him, while he was barely a blip on the radar of Sunnydale's female population. Not that Jesse was jealous of _who_ Xander had jonesing for him. Willow was his friend, always had been. And Buffy, well, Jesse could see why Xander was so interested in her, but she just seemed like one more pretty girl in a sea of them. He must have a history ... uh, future history ... whatever, with her that he'd want to shower her with attention instead of someone like...

Cordelia walked out of the woman's locker room in her cheerleader get-up, a superior aura surrounding her as she looked down her nose at her competitors.

Jesse honestly didn't know what he saw in Cordelia that made his heart race every time she was in spitting distance. What a crock! You know exactly why! It's because she's the hottest girl in school! In town, even! She could, and does, insult you every chance she gets, but you still worship the ground she walks on

"Hey, guys," Buffy said, walking up to them with Xander behind. Jesse noticed she had on the gold cross Xander had showed him. She was also grinning from ear to ear, so it looked like his friend's gift had been well received. Oh, yeah. He's gonna score

"So, how'd it go with Giles?" Willow asked. A melancholy look passed over her face when she saw Buffy's new necklace. Wow, she figured that out fast. But then, she's always been the smart one

"He totally lost his water. We haven't seen a vampire in a week. I'd say he should get a girlfriend if he wasn't so old." Buffy answered.

"Well, we're behind you," Willow assured her.

"Yeah!" Jesse piped up. "Who's he to say you can't live your life and kill evil fiends at the same time!"

"Are you losers on something?" Cordelia asked, walking up. She'd overheard Jesse's 'evil fiends' comment.

"Hey, Cordy," Jesse said, smiling from ear to ear. "Love the outfit."

Unfortunately for Jesse, his praise went unheard, as Cordelia had once again zoned him out. "Just look at that Amber," she scoffed. "Who does she think she is, a Laker girl?"

"I heard she turned them down," Willow put in, at which Cordelia rolled her eyes.

As the cheerleading coach blew her whistle and tried to get the girls organized, Jesse was bemoaning his taste in women, again. I am an idiot. I like Cordelia, but to her I am less than the dirt on her shoes. Why, _oh why_, can't I like a nice, yet still hot, girl?

"Amy! Hi!" Willow exclaimed to a blond girl who had just walked up to stand beside her.

"Hi," Amy said, somewhat reticently.

Amy!?!? But she ... I mean ... where'd the rest of her go!? Jesse's thoughts were swirling and he couldn't take his eyes of the new, well-proportioned Amy Madison.

"I didn't know you wanted to be a cheerleader. You lost a lot of weight," Willow complimented.

And how! The last time I saw her she was like, a hundred seventy pounds!

"Had to," Amy said, smiling.

"Do you know Buffy?" Willow asked pointing to their new friend.

She didn't, so they exchanged 'Hi's.

Amber had started her routine on the floor, and Amy sighed, discouraged. "Oh how I hate this. Let me count the ways."

While they watched Amber's performance, and the cheerleaders talked shop, Jesse kept stealing looks at Amy. Wow, she looks ... hot. Plus, she's really ... nice. Hey! That's just what I wanted! It must be, like, a sign from the Hellmouth, or something! I'm gonna ... I'm gonna ... what the heck am I gonna do? She may be just what I'm looking for in a girl, but I'm still _me_. Jesse, the woman repeller! OK, here's an idea. You haven't said a word to her yet. Start off with 'hey, how's it goin' or something

Jesse walked around behind everyone, and made his way next to Amy. He saw Xander look at him curiously, which turned into a smirk when he saw what he was doing.

When Jesse was finally standing next to her, he cleared his throat, and opened his mouth to speak. "Hey, Amy, ho-"

"What the...!" Buffy interrupted, staring at the scene on the gym mats.

"That girl's on fire!" Willow shouted, pointing at Amber.

Jesse looked up and his eyes almost popped out of his head. Amber's hands were smoking. A second later, they actually burst into flames. The girl was screaming and shaking her hands around, trying to put the fire out. Everyone was too stunned to move.

Except for Buffy. Those Slayer instincts sure come in handy Jesse thought. She jumped onto the bleachers and tore down one of the few school banners hanging around the gym. Running back to the gym floor, she barreled into Amber, knocking her down, and proceeded to use the banner to smother the flames.

Everyone was still in shock. "Well that's something ya don't see every day," Jesse finally pointed out.  
  
  
  


* * * * *  
  
  
  


5:00 PM

SHS Library  
  
  
  


"Ah, good, you're back," Giles said as the group entered the library. He had, as usual, an old dusty book in his hands. He was still perusing it and didn't see the somber expressions on their faces. "I've found a binding ritual that should keep the-the demon Moloch tied t-to..." he trailed off as he glanced up when the usual inane chatter hadn't accompanied the quartet into the room. "What's wrong?"

"Girl ... gym ... h-hands on fire," Willow stuttered out, looking quite shaken.

"Beg your pardon?" Giles asked, perplexed.

Buffy sighed and clarified for her tongue-tied friend. "One of the girls at cheerleader tryouts was doing her routine when all of a sudden, her hands burst in flames."

Giles cocked his eyebrow. "Burst into flames?"

"Like an ant under a magnifying glass," Jesse confirmed.

"Well, that's ... quite unusual," Giles stated.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Ya think? So, any ideas, professor?"

Xander cleared his throat abruptly and drew everyone's attention to him. "Um, hi. Guy from the future here."

Buffy glared at him, and the others looked a little upset as well. "You _knew_ that was going to happen and you didn't tell us!? Amber could have been killed!"

Xander held his hands out in appeasement. "Woah! Woah! Before you all go jumping to conclusions, hear me out, all right?" He took their silence as permission to continue. "Now, first off, I'm not always going to tell you everything that's gonna happen. Some things you have to discover on your own, or else, well, things could get outta whack. You'll just have to trust me when I say that I'd never do anything to hurt you guys, or anyone else. OK?" A lot of the tension drained out of the room, and Buffy smiled apologetically at Xander.

"All right. Second of all, I didn't tell you about Amber, because you all had to look surprised, because the person responsible was in the gym with us." His friends' heads perked up.

"Who was it?" Willow asked.

"Well, it was kinda Amy."

"AMY!?" Jesse blurted.

"Kinda Amy'?" Buffy asked, more under control.

"Yeah," Xander said, sheepishly. "Wills, Jess, you know how Amy's mom is a real witch?" His old friends nodded. "Well, the thing is, she's a real witch."

"There are witches, now?" Jesse asked. "Like, fly-around-on-a-broomstick, pointy-hat-wearing witches?"

Giles broke into the conversation. "A-and, what does this Amy's mother have to do with this?"

"She cast a spell that switched her body with her daughter's. Mrs. Madison used to be a big-time cheerleader in high school, and now she wants to relive her 'Glory Days'."

Giles looked like he was having a hard time believing what he was hearing. "Y-y-you're saying that a witch i-is casting spells on innocent people so that she could become a-a _cheerleader_?

"Yeah, that's about the size of it."

"Right. Well, that settles it. You Americans are all out of your bloody minds."

"Well," Buffy put in. "She did sound pretty obsessed with the whole cheerleading scene when I talked to her..."

"B-but, Amy was never like that!" Willow continued, excitedly.

"All right!" Jesse said, anxiously. "Let's saddle up! Scooby Gang to the rescue!"

"Whoa, pardner," Xander said with a smile. "It's not really that simple. First, we've gotta switch their bodies back. Then, we've gotta decide what we wanna do with Mrs. Madison."

"Whaddaya mean?" Jesse asked. "Buffy's the Slayer, she'll slay her!"

"Look, Amy's mom may be an evil psycho, but she's still human, and Buffy doesn't kill people. That's called 'murder'."

"I agree," Giles concurred. "It is one of the Slayer's cardinal rules that she can harm humans only in self-defense."

"So, what did you do?" Willow asked. Xander looked at her, confused. "I-I mean what happened the last time?"

"Well ... no one really knew," Xander said slowly. He cut off the chorus of exclamations before they could come. "What happened was, we switched their bodies back, and Catherine, that's Amy's mom," Xander added to Buffy and Giles. "freaked out and tried to kill us. She cast a spell, but Buffy reflected it back at her with a mirror, and she just ... vanished into thin air. We never found out where she disappeared to, and I don't remember what the spell was."

"And since we don't know the spell, we can't be sure it'll happen that way again," Buffy finished. Xander nodded. "So, Giles," she asked, turning to her Watcher. "any suggestions?"

Giles looked thoughtful for a moment, and took off his spectacles to give them a good cleaning. "Uh, well, a-a banishment ritual of some sort, I-I suppose c-could be useful..." he trailed off, deep in thought, and then blinked as he came to a realization. "The ritual!"

"What ritual?" Jesse asked, pretty much lost, by this point.

"T-the ritual I found before you came in! The one to bind Moloch indefinitely to the book! It's a-a fairly general incantation, a more powerful derivative of-of the original spell that trapped the demon there. It may work on other supernatural, um, creatures."

"Can you work it?" Buffy questioned.

"I-it's fairly straightforward, yes," Giles confirmed, but then frowned. "Although I will need a second when I perform the casting."

"A second what?" This from Jesse.

"Spell caster. That is required for some rites and ceremonies and such. It is just reciting a few phrases in Latin, though."

"All right," Xander interrupted. "Here's what I think we should do. Tomorrow at lunch, when tryouts are going on, again, Jesse and I'll go to Amy's place, pick her up and get her spell book. We'll need that to switch their bodies back. Buffy will be at tryouts too, so she can keep an eye on witch-girl. Giles and Willow can stick around here and get the spells ready, so we can cast them right after school tomorrow. How's that?"

His friends aback by Xander's slightly commanding tone. It was seemingly uncharacteristic of the witty, silly teen. But no one could find anything wrong with his plan, and four heads nodded.

"OK," Xander said, then decided a little stress relief was in order. "You guys wanna hit the Bronze tonight?"  
  
  
  


End VII


	2. Black Magic

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.**__**

  
  


**_Chapter VIII - Black Magic_**

  
  


_January 28, 1997_

_12:00 PM_

_Streets of Sunnydale_

  
  


"So, she liked it, huh?" Jesse asked with a grin. He and Xander had escaped the watchful eyes of Principal Flutie ten minutes ago, and high-tailed it off of school grounds. It was a good twenty minute walk to the Madison house across town. Fortunately, they both had fifth period free, and were in no big hurry.

"Hmmm?" Xander asked, distracted by his own thoughts.

"Buffy, nimrod. She liked the necklace?"

Xander grinned lop-sidedly. "Well she didn't laugh in my face, so I get points for that."

"Yeah, right. When she walked into that gym yesterday it looked like someone had given her a solid gold puppy. What did she say?"

His friend shrugged. "Nothin' much. 'It's beautiful', 'best gift I ever got', stuff like that."

"She give ya anything else?" Jesse asked with a malicious smirk. "You guys *were* a little late, y'know."

Xander looked up, shaking his head and sighing. "Jesse, you're such a simple creature, you know that? Is everything about sex to you?"

"This coming from Xander 'Libido' Harris?" Xander just shook his head some more. "Didja ask her out, yet?"

"Not so much, no," Xander stated, frowning slightly. "It would have been the perfect opportunity, too. She was all happy, she'd given me a kiss on the cheek-"

"Score!!" Jesse exclaimed sarcastically.

"Shut up, numbskull. Where was I? Oh, yeah. She was lookin' up at me all dreamy-like. But ... I can't yet."

"Huh? What? Can't ask her out? ... Is this one of those timeline things, where if ya do, things get screwed up and everyone dies? Cuz I could keep her warm for ya until-"

"If you finish that sentence I will bounce your head off the sidewalk. And no. At least I don't think so. The reason is ... well, Willow."

Jesse looked over at his friend, surprised. "You know?"

"About her crush? If you would've asked me five years ago I wouldn't have. But it came out into the open eventually."

Jesse was still a little befuddled. "So, what, you wanna ... date Willow?"

"What!? No, god no! Not that she's not a great catch, it's just..." he sighed. "You can't say this to anyone and if ya do, well, y'know. In senior year, Willow and I had a-a short ... fling."

Jesse was shocked beyond belief. "A fling!? You flung Willow!?"

"A little louder, moron," Xander rebuked. "It ended badly, and we decided that being best friends is what we were best at."

"OK, sooo, you don't want to date Willow because it didn't work out, but you won't date Buffy because Willow will get hurt, right?"

"Yup."

"So what were you doing with Buffy during all this?"

"Not a whole heck of a lot. We weren't even together, y'know, romantically until just before I died. Not that I didn't try for the first three years that I knew her."

Jesse smirked at him. "What, your irresistible charm didn't work on her?"

"Well, I didn't make a great first impression. First time I saw her I was on my skateboard, and when I saw her I got so distracted I ran into a steel railing."

His friend laughed out loud. "That's sounds like something graceless, idiot-boy Xander Harris would do. And lemme guess, when you tried talking to her you turned into a babbling moron. Am I right?" he asked with a wide grin.

Xander sighed. "You're not wrong."

Jesse chuckled some more, and then contemplated something for a minute. "OK, weren't we talking about why you aren't asking out Buffy _now_? This 'things that haven't happened' stuff is giving me a headache."

"Right. Anyway, I don't want to ask Buffy out until I'm sure Willow won't get hurt in the deal."

"How are you gonna do that?" Jesse asked curiously.

"Well, I've decided to use my knowledge of the future to play matchmaker for her."

Jesse wore a confused look for a few seconds but then it cleared up, and he exclaimed in triumph, "Ah-ha! You're gonna set her up with a guy you know she'll like! A guy who she dated in the future! So, who is he, do I know him?"

"I don't think so. I mean, _I_ didn't even meet him until ... the middle of next year. Believe it or not, he's in a band. A band! Willow dated a band member. He played guitar, real quiet guy named Oz."

"Oz? As in The Wonderful Wizard of?" Jesse chuckled, then did a double take at Xander. "Wait a minute. Oz? Dan Osbourne?"

Now it was Xander's turn to be surprised. "_You_ know him?"

"Um, not too, too well. His parents are old friends of my family, but he doesn't hang around them much. He lives with his friends in the band. Doesn't come to school much, either, but I've seen him around every now and then."

"This is good, this is good! We can use this..." Xander trailed off thoughtfully.

"We? As in you and me? Uh-uh. No way, no how. I don't meddle in matters of the heart."

"Very poetic, Jess. I'll tell ya what. You help me in pulling off Operation Willow/Oz, and I'll help _you_ in its follow-up-action, Operation Jesse/Amy," he said smirking.

"W-w-what?" Jesse stuttered out. "I-I don't-"

"Yes, ya do, pea brain. I have become wise and knowledgeable with my years. One of my new skills is the ability to spot crushes from a mile away. Once we get everyone's bodies sorted out, I'll lend you some of my irresistible charm to woo her with. Anything to take your one-track mind off Cordelia."

"Why? Is she gonna break my heart?" Jesse asked.

"Doesn't she always?" Xander responded. He looked around, and suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"What?" Jesse asked. Xander turned around and looked behind them. Then he groaned.

"We are idiots," he said. He pointed to a house they had passed a block back. "That's Amy's house."

They stood in silence for a moment. Then Jesse spoke. "Let us never speak of this again." And they trudged back the way the came.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_12:25 PM_

_Madison Residence_

  
  


Jesse knocked on the door three times before stepping back to stand next to Xander. As they waited for Amy-in-Catherine's-body to answer, Xander thought about this new development in the Scooby Gang dynamic. He was ecstatic that Jesse had been saved, but he had no idea how that would affect things in the future. On the surface, one more ally meant things would be easier in the fight against evil, in general. But there was no way to predict what exactly would happen anymore. Jesse's presence made that impossible. Hell, just _my_ presence here, and my friends' knowledge that I'm different changes everything

This situation with Catherine Madison was case in point. Despite their knowledge of what the problem was in general, they were still flying by the seat of their pants. They'd done that often enough before, but their luck could run out at any time.

His contemplations were cut off when the door in front of them opened to reveal a disheveled-looking, middle-aged woman. Her short brown hair was uncombed, and she wore what looked like a perpetual frown on her face. She brightened slightly when she saw them. "Xander? Jesse?" She seemed to realize something, and quickly added. "Uh, er, you're A-Amy's friends, aren't you?"

Xander smiled at her. "Funny. I don't remember ever meeting you face-to-face, Mrs. Madison. How did you know what I looked like?"

She was taken by surprise by his straight-forwardness. "Uh, I, um ..."

"Look," Jesse blurted out. "We don't have a ton of time here. Can we come in?"

The woman shook her head. "N-no, I can't, um-" she was cut off as Xander brushed by her into the house, followed closely by Jesse.

'Mrs. Madison' looked about ready to protest again, but Xander interrupted her once more. "Sorry about this, Amy, but, like Jesse said, we'd like to get this over with as soon as possible."

"Amy!? No, I'm not-"

"We know what happened, Amy," Xander continued, softer now, trying to reassure her. "We found out that your mom went loony and switched your bodies so that she could be a great cheerleader again."  
Dropping all pretense, Amy stared at them in shock. "How do you know?"

"It's sort of our job," Jesse proclaimed proudly. "Us and our friends are Sunnydale's unofficial evil fighters, and, well, your mom qualifies."

Xander took over the explanation. "We can help you, Amy. All we need to know is where her," Xander searched for a word. "lair, her cauldron, whatever! We need to know where she keeps her spell books. Then we can switch your bodies back."

Amy's face twitched into what had to be its first smile in months. "Really?" she asked hopefully. Her face fell almost instantly, though. "B-but, s-she'll still be around! She'll still be around and she'll kill me!"

Jesse tried to reassure her. "Don't worry about it. We've got a plan to take care of her. We're gonna trap her in a book, if you can believe," he finished with a smile.

Amy looked perplexed again, so Xander ventured to explain. "She's not the only one who can do magic."

The teen in a woman's body before them still looked scared out of her wits, but she shakily nodded. "S-she does her spells and stuff in the attic."

"Thank you, Amy," Xander said gratefully, and led the three upstairs.

  
  


The door to the attic was locked, of course. Knowing this was no time for subtlety, Xander took a few steps back, and charged the door down.

Or tried to, anyway. He bounced off, wincing in pain. "OW! Stupid, muscleless, sixteen year old body! I coulda done this a month ago no sweat!" Sighing in resignation, he said two words he'd never live down. "Jesse, help."

His friend milked it for all it was worth. He feigned shock and said. "Moi? Help you? The great time-traveling guru who faced down the most despicable creatures on earth needs help taking on a little bitty door?"

Time to fight fire with fire "Fine, we'll just wait for the evil witch to come home and open it for us. Until then, how 'bout we discuss Operation J/A, hmmm?"

Jesse's eyes widened and he immediately jumped away from Amy, who'd been standing next to him and watching their exchange with puzzlement. "Don't just stand there, man, we've gotta get in there!" Jesse took up position beside Xander, who turned so his unharmed shoulder was facing the door. "One, Two, Three!" On three, they rammed the door at the same time, and it was knocked off its hinges.

Catherine's lair was as creepsome as Xander had anticipated. He was surprised to find an honest-to-god, stereotypical cauldron sitting in the middle of the attic, filled with some sort of liquid. He didn't want to think about what exactly it was. Weird looking flowers and herbs hung from a string attached to opposite walls, near the ceiling. A work bench had various cutting and stirring implements scattered on it, and little pieces of flesh (he hoped just animal) and leaves dirtied it further. Several tagged personal items were piled near one corner of the bench. Xander could see a cheap looking watch, a ring, and-

"Hey!" Jesse suddenly exclaimed, stalking over to the pile of stuff. He picked up a tape cassette and looked at the title. "This is mine! That little witch stole my Bon Jovi tape!" Shaking off the distraction, Xander continued to survey the bleak room.

There was a rack attached to the wall right above the bench, that held a dozen dolls attached by loops of wire around their necks. Above that was an uncluttered shelf, with just three dolls on it. One had a pendant wrapped around its neck. The other two were bound together with string. Several boxes and chests filled the rest of the room.

He picked up the bound-together dolls. This must be what she used to switch bodies. And the other doll ... that must be Amber's pendant

Xander replaced the doll and started to investigate the chests on the other side of the room. He opened one of the trunks and a dark shape jumped out at him, hissing. "Gah!!" Xander yelled, stumbling back. He released a breath when he saw the creature was nothing more than a black cat, which was now scampering out the door behind him. "I hate cats." Xander looked at the trunk he'd just opened. "Hell-o," he murmured. There was just one book in the whole big trunk. He picked it up. It wasn't covered in dust, like most archaic books he had encountered. It's like it's been used recently...

He opened it and found a dog-eared page. Lo and behold, the first heading he saw read: 'Body Transpossession'. "Got it," Xander called out. Jesse and Amy stopped their searches and looked up at him. "Amy, you gotta come with us. We're casting the spell as soon as school ends, and you really don't wanna be in the same house with her when this goes down." Amy hurriedly nodded, and the three left the attic with its broken down door behind.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_3:45 PM_

_SHS Library_

  
  


I _really_ don't wanna know why Giles owns so many chains and manacles Buffy thought with a shudder.

Normally, the scene of a blindfolded and gagged woman with her hands and legs chained together behind her back like a trussed-up pig would have disturbed her to no end. But now ... well, it was still pretty disturbing. But necessary, if Catherine was as bad as they all thought. When they switched the bodies back, the witch would likely be out for blood. Hence the chains and the locked book cage. Amy had given in without much fuss. She knew first hand what her mother was like.

Giles and Willow had their little chemistry lab set up on the main table. It had taken Giles about a minute to find the spell they needed to cast in the retrieved spell book, and about a half an hour, during Willow's free sixth period, to smuggle the beakers and chemicals and stuff they would need out of Dr. Gregory's science room. Buffy, Xander and Jesse sat on the counter. Spells and science weren't really their 'things'.

Buffy unconsciously fiddled with the gold cross hanging around her neck. She smiled at the memory. It was really sweet of Xander to buy me that. It must have cost him a fortune

Her feelings for the witty, dark haired young man (cuz he really wasn't a _boy_ at all, though he did act it sometimes) had escalated rapidly over the past weeks. First, she'd just been interested, like she would have been with any good-looking, moderately humorous prospect. Then after hanging out with him for a while, she learned he was not 'moderately humorous', but witty and funny non-stop. But he could also be serious and supportive when the strains of her 'night job' started getting to her. He understood her like no one else did or could. They both carried heavy burdens of responsibility; her destiny and his mission, which he still hadn't explained in any detail. After his speech the day before, though, she understood his reluctance.

Xander had quickly became her best friend. Buffy still hung out with Willow and Jesse quite a bit, but it was usually in the context of the whole 'Scooby Gang'. She and Willow had found common ground on several subjects, most notably Xander and what a great guy he was. Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, that same subject hung between them as a hindrance to furthering their friendship. Buffy could see how Willow got a 'someone ran over my puppy' look whenever she and Xander shared a look or flirted mildly in front of her. If Xander is not trying to pursue her, then that means he and Willow aren't meant to be together. If he wanted her, all he has to do is swoop in and she'd be his. But he hasn't Buffy justified. Buffy just hoped Willow would understand that, cuz if Xander didn't ask her out within a week, _she_ would take the initiative.

Buffy's musings were cut short by muffled exclamations coming from the woman chained up in the book cage. She was writhing as much as was possible in her position and trying to say something.

"I think she means witchy is coming," Xander interpreted, looking nervously at the library doors.

Buffy turned to the spell casters. "Guys, can we get a move on?"

Giles nodded. "T-the potion is ready," he said flipping through the spell book. "Just ... need ... too ... ah! Here it is!" he exclaimed pointing at an entry in the book. He started reciting the incantation.

"Unlock the gate. Let the darkness shine. Cover us with holy fear."

Amy seemed to slump after the first verse, but she started writhing again soon thereafter.

"Corsheth and Gilail! The gate is closed! Release the unworthy! Take of mine energy and be sated!" Giles recited, his voice rising with each phrase. He dipped his hands into the concoction he'd created for a few seconds. Pulling them out, he continued. "Be sated! Release the unworthy! ... Release!" The magic in the air was almost becoming tangible. "Release!!" Amy stopped her squirming and braced herself, as if sensing the ritual's culmination. "Release!!!"

There was a bright flash of light, blinding everyone in the room for a few moments. When everyone's vision was blinked back into existence, they saw Catherine Madison thrashing violently around in the book cage. The insane witch was trying to scream through her gag, and the vehemence of her efforts proved that Amy had definitely left the building.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief that the first part had worked, but the tension quickly returned at the realization that they were still dealing with a powerful witch. "Buffy, Xander, bring her to the circle," Giles instructed. The second casting of the night required the subject to be contained within a drawn circle, which would focus the magical energies that needed to be utilized. The two nodded and cautiously unlocked the steel-reinforced cage. Catherine was suddenly submissive to them as they dragged her out, Buffy picking her up by her front, Xander by her legs. They soon found out why.

What the... Xander thought as he held up Catherine Madison by her knees. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. The blindfold on the witch, tied up behind her head was ... coming undone.

Before he realized what had happened, the knot had been magically untied and the blindfold fell off Catherine's head. Buffy looked down, startled, and her gaze locked with Catherine's angry glare.

The next thing Buffy knew, she was flying backwards through the air. She landed heavily behind the counter, a flailing leg knocking Jesse in the other direction. Xander froze in shock for a crucial second. By that time, Catherine had burned through the chain connecting her hands and feet together. She lashed out with her now free legs and Xander dropped her, knocked back into the cage. The witch made short work of the rest of her bonds, though she was left with still-manacled wrists and ankles.

She ripped the gag out of her mouth and bellowed. "You stupid children!! Did you really think _that_ could hold me!?!?" Xander had gotten up and charged her, but before he got within five feet of her, she turned and grabbed the air in a choking motion. Xander was stopped in his tracks and he grabbed at his suddenly constricted throat. Then he was flying through the air, as Catherine motioned her choking hand toward the counter. Unfortunately, he landed on a just-getting-up Buffy, knocking them both to the floor again.

Willow ran over to her fallen friends and Giles tried to rush the witch. She simply cackled at him and motioned with her hands toward him. The telekinetic magic did the rest, sending Giles flying back into the stacks. At that moment, the creaking library doors burst open...

And in ran an out-of-breath Amy Madison.

"I'm OK, guys! I'm..." she trailed off and her relieved look changed to one of pure horror at the sight of her mother. "Oh no!!"

"YOU!" Catherine yelled venomously. "You little brat!!" The deranged witch advanced on her terrified daughter.

"M-mom, don't," she begged, holding out her hands in submission.

"You ungrateful little twit!! I gave you birth! I gave up my life so that you could drag that worthless carcass around and call it living!? You'll never be anything but trouble! I'm going to put you where you can't make trouble again!" she ranted menacingly.

That sounds familiar Xander thought, getting up off Buffy. He saw Amy writhing in her mother's magical grip, floating in mid air. Her eyes had gone pitch black, a sure sign that things were about to get worse.

"Amy!" a voice yelled. Xander saw Jesse getting up of off the floor in front of the counter. He ran at Catherine, still engrossed in choking her daughter. He tackled her to the ground, breaking her concentration and the levitation spell. Amy fell to the ground, gasping in much-needed breaths.

"Buff!" Xander said, getting the Slayer's attention. "I think she's gonna try that spell! Go fight her, piss her off! I'll get something reflect-y!" he said and made a break for the training room.

Jesse was still on top of Catherine, punching her wildly. After a few shots, though, the witch regained her senses and threw him off her with her telekinesis in a fit of rage. He landed on the back edge of the table, tumbling backwards and onto the floor.

The witch had just regained her feet when a snap kick caught her in the face, followed by Buffy's fist knocking her down and sliding her across the floor.

"You little hoodlum! You can't stop me!" Catherine yelled, jumping to her feet again.

"Y'know I get that a lot," Buffy said, before she was knocked back again by the witch's magic.

Xander had hurried into the training room, just avoiding Catherine's wrath. If he remembered correctly ... There! A two by one foot mirror hung on the wall on the other side of the room. Xander ran across the mats and quickly retrieved it off the wall, and scrambled back to the fight.

He returned just in time to see Catherine's black eyes focusing directly on Buffy, lifting herself off the floor yet again. "I will look upon my enemy..." she started, the first vestiges of magical energy dancing on her fingertips. "I will look upon her and the dark place will have her soul!"  
That's it! That's the spell! Buffy was too far away to throw the mirror to her, or get it to her in time. He only had one shot at this...

"Corsheth, take her!!" And the crackling energy lashed out towards the Slayer. Xander jumped in the way of the onslaught, clutching the mirror tightly and bracing himself. The spell's energy hit him hard, knocking him back a few feet to land in front of Buffy, but the mirror served its purpose. The spell reflected back at the caster, and Catherine was enveloped in a crackling field of magical energy. The witch screamed in pain and the black energy surrounding her reached a crescendo of noise. At last, the magic vanished with a roar and a flash of light, and Catherine Madison disappeared.

The threat gone, everyone slumped back to the ground with a collective 'Ow'. Xander found his voice first. "Everybody OK?" he asked, breathing hard.

"Uh huh." Several voices chorused, as well as a British-sounding "Quite all right."

"Anyone mind if I flake out here for a while?" Jesse asked, from his position on the floor at the head of the table. No one answered. Silence reigned for a while longer.

"So, Buff," Xander asked suddenly. "Did you make the team?"

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_January 29, 1997_

_8:45 AM_

_Sunnydale High School_

  
  


Once again, Buffy and Xander walked up to school together as another day at Sunnydale High began. It had become an unspoken rule between them that Xander met Buffy at her house in the morning and they walked to school together.

"First alternate, huh? I think that's what you got last time. Guess my good luck necklace didn't do any good," Xander said.

"Ehn," Buffy shrugged. "No biggie. I think I tried out mostly to tick off Giles anyway. Is he always going to be so stuck up?" she inquired.

"Nah. He's the best Watcher I've ever met. Not that there's much competition," he added darkly. "He'll come around ... eventually."

Buffy nodded absently. "Xand?" she started softly.

"Yeah, Buff?"

"I just ..." she smiled warmly at him. "Thank you."

Xander furrowed his brow as he stopped and turned to her. "What for Buffy?"

"For ... everything. Everything you've done for me since I moved here. Helping me, being my first real friend, here or anywhere else, really. My old 'friends' in LA all pretty much abandoned me before I even left. You and Willow and Jesse; I've known you guys for less than a month but you're already the best friends I've ever had. And ... I feel like I have you to thank for that."

"Buffy, I didn't make you those friends. You did. They couldn't help but _want _to be your friends because of what a great person you are. And me, well, even if I didn't have this crazy mission-thing, I'd still want to be around you. I just ... love being with you, anywhere near you," he finished tenderly.

Buffy's smile widened and they just gazed softly at one another for a long moment.

OK, Xandman, if there was ever a ready-made perfect moment, this is it! You've got the plans for Willow-Oz hook-upage all ready to go. If you take yourself off the market now, Will'll be more willing to give him a shot. So, here we go...

"Buffy, would you-"

"Hey guys!" a voice in front of them exclaimed at just the wrong moment.

Note to self: bludgeon Jesse to death with a big rock later

"Hey, Jesse," Buffy said, tearing her eyes away from Xander reluctantly.

"Yeah, how ya doin' 'Hero'?" Xander ground out through clenched teeth.

Jesse rolled his eyes. "Well, geez! You two superguys..." he trailed off at Buffy's glare. "super_people_," he amended, and Buffy's smile returned. "were too busy falling all over each other, so someone had to jump to the rescue." He puffed out his chest proudly.

Xander was in the mood to deflate Jesse and cause him a little pain at the same time. "Well, glad you saved our butts _Super-Jesse_," he said mockingly, and slapped him on the back a little harder than necessary. The back he'd fallen on the night before.

"OWWW!!!" Jesse yelled involuntarily, causing several students to turn and snicker at him. Buffy and Xander grinned evilly at the harried teen. Jesse groaned in pain, rubbing his stiff back. "Fine. Mock my pain. Maybe next time I won't be around to pull your fat outta the fire."

"And yet, we'll find a way to live on." Xander stated melodramatically.

Suddenly, Jesse straightened himself up fully, wincing at first before he plastered a smile on his face. "Amy!" he called over Buffy's shoulder. They turned to see the blond now-former cheerleader smiling and hurrying toward them.

"Amy! Hi," Xander said. "How's that new body workin' out for ya?"

Amy was grinning from ear to ear. "Oh, it's great!! I never thought I'd be so glad to be back at school." They all chuckled at that. "I just, I just can't thank you guys enough. Thank you _sooo _much!"

"Ah, it was nothin'," Jesse said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Well, thanks, again. I've gotta go see where all my classes are. Haven't been here for months. See ya later," Amy said, and started walking away.

Jesse looked a little panicked as she walked away. "Wait!" he suddenly blurted. Amy stopped and turned back, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "Amy, would you, ah, do you ... wanna hang with us at the Bronze tonight?" he finished quickly. "Y'know, have some fun, get back into the swing of things?"

Amy smiled again. "Sure! That's sounds like fun."

Jesse smiled so widely Xander thought his face was going to break. "Great! Uh, meet us there at ... 7:30?"   
"OK," she said. "See you guys then." And she continued into the school.

When Amy was through the doors and out of sight, Jesse turned to Xander triumphantly. "HA! I did it! And I didn't need any of your 'irresistable charm'!" Jesse said the last two words with sarcasm just dripping off his tongue.

Buffy and Xander exchanged incredulous looks. Xander looked back to his friend. "How do ya figure?"

"I just asked her out on a date, and she accepted!" Jesse proclaimed, as if it were obvious.

"That wasn't a date," Buffy argued, shaking her head. "That was asking her to hang around with *us*. Hence the 'See *you guys* then.'"

Jesse just looked back and forth between the two of them for a few seconds. "Ah crap!!" he exclaimed, and stormed away into the school.

Xander and Buffy exchanged an amused look. Then they burst out laughing, and made their way into the school.

  
  


End VIII


	3. Cupid's Arrows: Hits and Misses

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.**__**

  
  


**__**Chapter IX - Cupid's Arrows: Hits and Misses

  
  


_Night_

_Main Street, Sunnydale_

  
  


Buffy was casually walking home after another long night of slaying. It had been pretty quiet lately; she'd only staked one vamp in the last week. Giles said that meant the vampires were laying low for the time being, gathering their strength for their next assault. Of course, this 'impending crisis' Giles warned of meant that Buffy had to train more, taking away from her already limited social time.

As Buffy continued down the street, she suddenly heard the sounds of fighting coming from around the corner. She immediately started running to the source of the action. She turned the corner to find two vampires, distinguishable by their distorted faces, hovering over-

"Xander!!" Buffy shouted, her heart leaping into her throat at the sight of him at the mercy of the vampires. One grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and hauled him to his feet. Just before he could bite into Xander's neck, Buffy's stake penetrated his back, and the vamp turned to dust. Xander fell out of his grasp and to the pavement, again. Buffy turned on the second vampire, stunned by her arrival, and dispatched him after a few punches, kicks and a stake to the heart.

Before the dust cloud had settled Buffy hurried to Xander's side. His eyes were closed, and he had the beginnings of a black eye on the left side of his face. "Xander! Xander, are you OK?" she asked worriedly, shaking him a bit.

His eyes fluttered open after a few seconds and he blinked a few times, clearing his vision. When his eyes found her concerned face, they shone with happiness. He smiled that lovable grin of his and said. "I am now."

Buffy smiled and blushed at his words, and offered her hand to help him up. He took it and she pulled him to his feet. Xander just stood there for a while, his lips parted a bit in what looked like an awed expression as he looked upon her. "Buffy, you look beautiful tonight," he said breathlessly.

Buffy looked down at herself. She was wearing her regular slaying attire: old black jeans and a loose fitting, dark sweater. She couldn't understand why he thought that looked so good on her. "Really, Xand? Looks like my usual line of Slayer-wear to me."

"I'm serious," Xander said sincerely, stepping closer to Buffy. She could almost feel the heat radiating off him, and her heart started to beat a little faster. He reached out his hand and brushed it across her cheek. A shiver went down Buffy's spine at his touch and her breath caught at the pleasurable little tingle his hand caused it trailed down her face. Her eyelids fluttered shut involuntarily, and when she opened them again, Xander's deep brown eyes were gazing into hers. Buffy licked her suddenly dry lips. "You're the most wonderful woman in the world to me," he said softly, leaning down to her.

Their lips met and a little voice in Buffy's head giggled in delight. His lips brushed against hers and she responded fervently, kissing him back. She closed the distance between them and pressed herself against the length of him. He wound his arms behind her, gently stroking the small of her back as the kiss raged on. Buffy circled her arms around his neck and ran her hands through his hair, pulling him even closer. He parted his lips wider and she greedily deepened it, wringing as much repressed passion out of her system as possible through this kiss. Xander's tongue was soon dueling with hers, and it won long enough for him to sweep it around her mouth hungrily. Buffy whimpered at the sensations and almost whined when they were forced apart by the need for breath.

Buffy and Xander stood breathing hard in one another's arms after they separated. Buffy leaned her forehead against Xander's chin, and he kissed it softly. "Buffy?"

Still catching her breath, she responded. "Yeah?"

"I-"

"Psst!"

Buffy pulled her head back to look at him, confusion written all over her face. She was surprised to find her vision was blurred and the night sounds fading away.

"Buffy, wake up," a voice hissed at her. A girl's voice. It sounded a bit like Willow.

All of a sudden, Xander disappeared from her arms and she felt herself waking fully from dreamland.

  
  


_February 5, 1997_

_11:25 AM_

_Room 109 - SHS_

  
  


Buffy was startled out of her sleep when Willow put a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. It took a few moments for Buffy to reorient herself to the real world.

Science. Science class. They were watching a slide show in science class. It was boring, as usual, about insects this time, and Buffy had been out all night slaying, so she had decided to rest her eyes for a little while. That had turned into a nap which turned into sleep complete with smoochie fantasy.

Buffy groaned aloud. Here in the real world, Xander hadn't even asked her out yet, let alone given any indication he wanted to do the things she had just dreamt about. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out why. Not that she was so full of herself that she thought Xander _had_ to be thinking about her all the time. You mean like you are him? a little voice asked. She just thought that they had made some kind of connection in the last month.

She'd been doing all she could to get his attention. Every day in the past week she'd worn progressively shorter skirts, but after today, the next step would have to be a thong. The school dress code frowned on those. She'd let her eyes linger a little longer than usual whenever she looked at him. She constantly wore a half smile whenever he was around, the smile that had attracted all the guys before she'd become Slayer. And yet ... nothing happened with Xander.

The passive, self-deprecating part of her was starting to think that he didn't want to go out with her at all. Who would want to go out with a messed up chick like you? No one would want to get involved with someone who has a shelf-life shorter than a twinkie in Xander's pantry

Buffy sighed. Twinkies are Xander's favorite

Her assertive self denied that implication. Xander isn't shallow. He wouldn't judge you based on that. He's just waiting for the right time

But when!? passive Buffy whined.

He probably knows about Willow's crush on him, and he wants to make sure he doesn't lose her as a friend assertive Buffy replied, Until then, you just need to keep him interested

Or aggressive Buffy suggested, Once class lets out, you could grab his hand, drag him to a broom closet, and show him how you feel there

Buffy had to admit she was starting to like the aggressive point of view. She could still almost feel Xander's lips on hers from her dream. The kiss was intoxicating. She wanted to see what it felt like in real life.

Finally, she opted for a compromise. Her self-imposed week-long deadline for Xander to ask her out ended today. If he didn't, she was going to tell him how she felt and hope for the best.

Here's hopin' she thought, mentally crossing her fingers.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_12:00 PM_

_SHS Quad_

  
  


Why do I keep doing these things that are only symbolic to me? Xander wondered as he guided Buffy to a familiar bench outside. First he tried to one up Angel with a gold cross gift to Buffy. Now, he was going to ask her out at the exact spot she had rejected him four years ago and a few months from now. You have issues Xand-man

He and Jesse had been working on how to cushion Willow from the blow of his and Buffy's planned ascension to coupledom for the past week. Namely, how to get Willow and Oz in the same room together, and then let nature run its course. Xander remembered a conversation he'd had with Oz once (a fairly one sided one, naturally; the guy spoke monosyllabically as much as possible) in which he'd found out that Oz had pretty much fallen for her at first sight.

So, the theory was that getting them to lay eyes on one another would inevitably lead to romance. In theory. They were going to test that out tonight. Jesse had called up Oz on Monday, ostensibly to catch up on old times. After a short few minute talk (caused by Oz's succinctness), Jesse had invited Oz to party at the Bronze on Wednesday. Tonight. He had accepted.

Xander sincerely hoped their scheme worked. He had seen less and less of Willow as he and Buffy had gotten closer. She'd even missed a couple Scooby meetings after school, something she had *never* done in the past, er, future. If she continued to drift away, he'd be forced to choose between the woman he loved and his best friend. It was an impossible choice, and he might even lose both of them.

Xander was optimistic, though. Oz had truly loved Willow when they had been together, and she loved him back. A year's difference shouldn't make much of a difference. Oz never changed, and meek Willow was the Willow he fell in love with.

With that thought in mind, Xander had decided not to put off making his feelings known to Buffy any longer. He didn't want to wait too long, like last time, and end up in 'the friend zone'.

"OK, Buff, take a seat, this'll only take a minute," Xander said, motioning to the empty bench.

She smiled shyly and sat. "Are you gonna propose, Xand?"

The question completely sent Xander for a loop. His eyes bugged out and his mouth dropped open. "Wha!?"

She smiled at his shocked expression. "Last week, before cheerleader tryouts, you said you were going to propose to me in a week," she explained innocently.

Xander was still catching flies with his gaping mouth. "Uhhhhh, nah, Buff. Sorry to disappoint, but no wedding bells are in our future," he said slowly. I can use this "Not our _immediate_ future, that is," he hinted with a smile, regaining his composure.

Buffy raised an eyebrow, and her eyes sparkled with curiosity and ... anticipation? He could only hope.

"OK," he started. "I've got something to tell you, Buffy. Before I ... died, in the future, we, uh, you and I, that is, um, we ..."

"Were together?" Buffy finished for him. Xander nodded. "I kind of thought as much."

Xander had suspected Buffy would have figured that out. After all, he'd pretty much started hitting on her as soon as she arrived. He hadn't shown any interest in other girls besides her.

"Yes, actually, the night I died was our first date."

Buffy looked shocked and saddened. "You died after our first date?" It sounded ridiculous coming out of her mouth, and Xander was glad the other students were heedless to their conversation.

"Yeah. Pretty tragic, huh?" Emphasize that. Buff's big on tragic romance

Buffy stared at him sympathetically for a bit before speaking again. "Were we together before that?"

Xander pretended to think hard for a second. "Um, not even remotely."

"Why not?" Buffy inquired.

Cuz you had the jones for a dead guy "Well, remember, I had to go through my teen years to get to be the guy I am today. And when I was sixteen, I was ... well, a lot like Jesse. Would you date him?"

"Probably not," she paused. "So we were together for ... one day."

"Yyyyes," he confirmed.

"Well," she said brightly, standing up. "I guess we'll just have to make up for lost time."

Xander blinked. Just blinked. He had pretty much expected this, but it was still a shock to the system. Then he grinned like an idiot. "I guess that answers the question I haven't even asked yet."

Buffy grinned up at him. "I think maybe we should make it official."

"Whatever you say Buff," Xander theatrically cleared his throat. "Would you, Buffy Summers, like to go out on a date with me, Alexander Harris?"

She slinked closer to him and looked him right in the eyes. "I would _love_ to."

Try as he might, Xander couldn't wipe the ridiculously large grin off his face, especially when the smile on Buffy's just kept getting bigger as well.

Someone cleared their throat loudly a few feet away from them. They looked up at who had ruined their moment, and found that it was, yet again, Jesse McCormick. He wore his own grin, but it started to disappear when he noticed the death glares his two friends were giving him.

"Jesse," Buffy started, "You do remember that I'm the Slayer don't you?" He nodded. "So you remember that I can kill you five times before you take a step, right?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jesse apologized insincerely with a smile. "Did I mess up another Hallmark moment? Just wanted to let you know that Wills is about," he checked his watch. "ten seconds away from seeing you two practically breathing each other's air."

Two thoughts ran through Xander's mind in a split second. The first was that he and Buffy had been unconciously moving closer to one another and were now separated by only inches. The second thought was that Willow was about to see them like that and he didn't want her to get all depressed again for tonight. It gave Xander to the impetus needed to spring back from Buffy. Unfortunately, his legs got tangled together and instead of gracefully leaping a few steps back, he clumsily fell backwards, arms waving, bumping into someone as he went down.

"You klutzy moron!!" a shrill and painfully familiar voice assaulted his ears.

"Hey, Queen C!" Xander smiled from the ground. "Wanna help one of your lowly subjects out and give me a hand?"

Predictably, Cordelia merely scowled down at him. "Dream on, loser. Just be thankful that these new two-hundred dollar shoes prevent me from stomping you into the ground," she said harshly and walked away.

"Always a pleasure, Cordelia," Buffy called out.

Xander sighed from his position at his friends' feet. One of the things he liked least about this gig was having to relive three years of Cordelia. And since he had no plans to date her this time (not that he did originally), he expected three years of insults and mockery from the May Queen.

Which could be a problem, he suddenly realized. Not that Cordy was ever an integral part of the Scooby Gang. She'd never really been an essential player when the demon of the week showed up, in combat or combat support (which was what Xander liked to call the researching and pastry-fetching he had engaged in for years). But when she moved to LA after high school graduation, she joined up with Angel to 'help the hopeless', and was evidently a big part of his team there, what with those weird PTB-sponsored visions she got. And if Cordelia had gotten anything out of their relationship, it was that the cold, heartless front she showed the world was worn down. Would history repeat itself if her hard exterior wasn't broken down? Maybe I should try to be nicer to her, as difficult as that would be some of the, well, all of the time

"Xand, are you getting up anytime soon?" Willow's voice broke him out of his thoughts. Apparently, Jesse hadn't been lying about Willow coming, which was good because he didn't feel like expending the energy to beat him up at the moment.

"He was having one of his mission-related contemplative episodes, right Xand?" Buffy asked, offering him her hand. He took it and pulled himself up, surprised that Buffy could read him so well after only a month. It shouldn't. You've practically poured your heart out to her already

"Uh, yeah. No worries, though. It's something really long term," Xander assured them.

"Woah, Xander Harris thinking ahead? Guess there's a first time for everything," Jesse smirked.

Xander ignored him. It wasn't a particularly nice thing to do, but he got a mean sense of gratification from not being the one on the receiving end, as he had so often before. "So, we all still on for the Bronze tonight?" he asked his three friends, though he and Jesse knew the question was directed solely at Willow. All three nodded. "Great! Well, Buff and I have to meet Giles to, uh, plan patrolling schedules for the rest of the week," he deliberately picked a lie that sounded akin to watching the grass grow. "So, Wills, Jess, see ya later," he finished, heading back into the school. Buffy said her own good-byes and followed him.

Once they'd walked out of earshot of their friends, Buffy spoke. "So is this gonna be a big part of our relationship? Lying to our friends so we can get some time alone?" Her tone was a little disappointed.

"Um, no. It's just for now, and really, it was just to Willow," Xander replied.

Buffy frowned. "I don't want to hurt Willow, either, Xand, but we can't keep us a secret forever. It'd be better to just tell her now and help her deal. Like ripping off a band-aid."

"I know. Fortunately, there's a third option. Y'see, I've got this ingenious plan that'll solve all our problems in one fell swoop," Xander said with a grin. "It involves the Bronze tonight, a musician, and love at first sight."

Buffy paused as she stared at Xander dubiously. "I don't think 'huh?' is a strong enough word."

"Lemme tell you a story, Buffster," Xander started. "Once upon a time, there was a guitarist named Oz..."

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_8:30 PM_

_The Bronze_

  
  


"Here ya go, Buff," Xander handed a glass of Pepsi to Buffy and set his own down on the table. He maneuvered his stool so that he was sitting right next to his new girlfriend, and she smiled at the gesture. Jesse and Willow weren't supposed to show up until nine, so Sunnydale's newest couple had decided to come early and have a little 'together' time before the 'just friends' mask was put on for Willow's benefit.

"So," Xander started, taking Buffy's deceptively delicate hand in his own. "Assuming 'the plan' works, I was thinkin' - first date, Saturday. Nothing apocalypse-y going on then that I remember. We pull out all the stops that my extremely limited income will allow. I figure dinner somewhere semi-nice, maybe catch a movie, and/or a little Bronzing..."

Buffy half-smiled at him. He'd been lightly rubbing the top of her hand with his thumb while he talked, leaving a pleasant little circle of warmth there. "Mmmm. Sounds good. My mom told me about this little mom-and-pop place a few blocks from the theater that she said was pretty good. That'd be convenient. What movie should we see?"

"Up to you. I've seen 'em all."

Buffy smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Even the chick flicks?"

Rolling his eyes, Xander responded. "Oh, God, especially the chick flicks! Whenever you, me and Wills had a movie night at one of our places' I'd always get outvoted. Poor Van Damme and Seagal never stood a chance."

Buffy giggled. That bubbly laughter lit up her eyes and promoted her from just another pretty face in a crowd to the most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on. The insecure sixteen year old in him still could hardly believe that this blond goddess was his girlfriend now. That she'd been chomping at the bit for the opportunity. Life simply couldn't get any better than this.

All of a sudden Buffy frowned. Maybe I spoke to soon But then Xander noticed she wasn't frowning at him, but at something behind him. Xander turned in his chair and it was with great irritation that he saw the figure which had attracted Buffy's attention. It was none other than Angel, wearing his standard neutral expression. Hopefully her attention is all he'll attract He was near the stage, across the dance floor from their table.

"Oh, good. Cryptic Guy's here," Buffy sounded unenthused. "Wonder what Deadboy wants."

Xander turned to face her, shock registering on his face. Buffy had just called Angel 'Deadboy'. This was officially the best day of his life.

But underneath it all, he felt a pang of sympathy for the souled vampire. Which was an unprecedented occurence for Xander when it came to his attitude toward Angel. If Xander knew one thing about Angel, it was that he loved Buffy. With all his unbeating heart. Even before she had fallen for him, he'd loved her. And now, his love would probably never be reciprocated. The pain of unrequited love was one Xander was all too familiar with. Xander shook the feeling away. He had his shot ... sort of

"Well, let's go see what unspeakable danger tall, dark and brooding has to tell us about," Xander suggested.

Buffy cocked her head to one side and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "You mean you don't know?"

Xander tried to think about what Angel could be here for. This was around the time when ... Xander shuddered. Praying Mantis Lady. She'd been stirring up trouble around this time. And at the same time a new vampire had been running around town, a vamp with a claw for a hand. That's why Angel had graced them with his presence.

"Yeah, I think so. But let's humor the dead guy why don't we? Besides, we'll need his help in the future and blowing him off is not a good way to get it."

Buffy nodded at his logic. God, that's weird. I've become the voice of reason The duo stood and walked across the Bronze.

Angel looked a little concerned when he saw the both of them coming towards him. He probably only expected to deal with the Slayer and that he'd stay completely anonymous. Unfortunately for him, that wasn't in the cards.

"Angel," Xander said with a fake smile. "Didn't know if we'd be seeing you again after the Harvest. Thanks for the assist, by the way."

"Um, you're welcome," he said a little uncertainly.

"So," Buffy inquired. "What ambiguous warning do you have for us today, Mr. Vampire-with-a-soul?" She asked the question with a slightly menacing tone.

"You told her?" Angel asked, looking at Xander.

"Would you rather have had her find out without all the proper explanations? You probably would've ended up dust faster than you can say 'Wait! I have a soul!' It's better this way." You have no idea how much better...

Angel nodded, though he looked a little annoyed. I've even got Angel agreeing with me. Yeesh "There's a new vampire in town. He's deadly. Don't let him corner you. Don't give him a moment's mercy. He'll rip your throat out."

Xander rolled his eyes. "Oy. Couldn't you just say 'He has a big claw on his hand'?"

Angel looked at him, surprised. "How do you know that?" he asked, a bit testily.

Xander sighed. "Fine. If we're gonna be working together you might as well know the score..." And Xander gave Angel a brief rundown of his situation. "So, any questions?"

Angel just stood there with a slightly bewildered expression on his face. It was pretty funny to see the mighty, unflappable Angel so speechless.

"I'll take that as a no," Xander grinned. "Well, it was nice seeing you again, Angel. You take care, now." And with that, Xander grabbed Buffy's hand and started to lead her back to their table. Buffy turned and waved bye-bye to Angel with her free hand while wearing a condescending smile on her face. Just for a second, though, because her smile turned genuine when she turned back to Xander.

That was fun Xander thought.

"So, this claw guy," Buffy started to ask, dragging Xander out of his happy thoughts. "Do I need to take care of him tonight?"

"Nope. Tomorrow'll do just-" Xander cut himself off when he reached their table.

Jesse and Willow had arrived while they were talking with Angel. Now, Jesse was looking between the couple and Willow with a grimace on his face. Xander glanced down at his and Buffy's entwined hands, visible for all to see. This is less fun he thought in a raging understatement

The look on Willow's face was gut wrenching. Her usual 'hurt puppy' look was replaced by a 'whipped, run over, and eviscerated-before-my-eyes puppy' look. Before either Buffy or Xander could say a word, Willow hopped out of her seat and made a beeline for the women's washroom.

"Stellar move, Xand-man," Xander berated himself. "You could of done one better and actually _ripped_ the still-beating heart from her chest."

"It'll be all right, Xand," Buffy tried to reassure. "I could go talk to her..." she trailed off.

"Um, I don't think that'd be smart," Jesse commented. "Seeing as you're probably the person she's most mad at."

"OK, OK, this is a minor setback," Xander said, starting to pace. "She can't stay in there forever. When she comes out, Jess, you make sure you bring her back to the table. _Don't_ let her leave," he emphasized. "Then Buff and I'll have to avoid her most of the rest of the night. But when Oz gets here, it won't matter because he'll charm the socks off her and everything will be OK!"

Jesse looked a little less sure of the new plan. "Yeah ... OK, man," he stopped and his eyes flashed to the door. "Oh, Oz's here already."

Buffy and Xander turned to see the new arrival. Oz had come in alone, his hands stuffed in the leather jacket he wore. His current hair-color-of-the-month was a surprisingly normal dark brown. Jesse and Xander quickly made their way over to him, with Buffy getting pulled along for the ride.

"Oz-man, how's it goin'?" Jesse called out with a smile. Oz turned to Jesse and smiled minutely, which was as much emotion Oz usually exhibited.

"Jesse," he said succinctly, with a barely perceptible nod.

"I'd like you to meet my friends," he said, throwing a brotherly arm over the musician's shoulder. "This is my main man Xander..."

"Hey, man," Xander said lamely.

"...and the lovely lady attached to his hip," Buffy gave Jesse a withering glare. "is Buffy."

Buffy smiled at Oz. "Nice to-"

She was interrupted by a girl about their age walking up behind Oz and Jesse. She had shoulder-length chestnut brown hair, piercing blue eyes and a fairly good figure. "Oz! I thought you were going to get us a table? This place is going to be packed soon."

Oz smiled at the newcomer and wrested his shoulders from Jesse's grasp. "Sorry, babe. These guys sorta ambushed me." The new girl smiled back at Oz and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. He put his arm around her shoulders and turned them to face Jesse, Buffy and a gaping Xander. "Lori, this is Jesse, Xander and Buffy," he said, pointing to each of them in turn. "Guys, this is my girlfriend, Lori."

  
  


End IX


	4. Resolution

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.

  
  


**__**Chapter X - Resolution

  
  


_February 5, 1997_

_9:00 PM_

_The Bronze_

  
  


Willow dabbed a piece of toilet paper in her damp eyes again as she finally reigned in her sobs. She sat in one of the stalls in the lady's room, where she'd been since running out of the party. Ever since she'd seen_ them_ together. Xander and Buffy.

For the past month, it had been obvious to Willow how they felt about one another. All the flirting, the stolen glances, the half smiles and lop-sided grins meant only for the other. But that was the wonderful thing about denial. Which was where Willow had set up camp almost as soon as Buffy moved to Sunnydale. She felt that as long as nothing was official, nothing would happen. It didn't stop the daggers that tore at her heart when they were 'doing their thing', but it kept her from breaking down entirely.

Like she was doing now. They'd been holding hands and staring and smiling at each other like they were the only two people in the world. And so the walls had come crashing down and her stored-up anguish was set free. How could she!? She knows I love him but she still went after him. I thought she was my friend! Willow thought angrily.

Through it all, though, her rational side was able to break through her angsty feelings. Buffy IS your friend. No other girls your age would come near you with a ten foot pole, but she didn't care that you weren't popular. She wanted to be your friend anyway. Just because she likes Xander doesn't mean she wanted to hurt you on purpose. It just shows she has good taste Willow let out a single, strangled chuckle at her last thought.

And Xander and Buffy looked really happy together. Which, when it came down to it, was what she wanted for all her friends. Xander has known you longer than you've known him, technically. If nothing happened between you in the five years to come, maybe nothing is ever meant to happen. You're not the first person to come out on the losing end of a love triangle It sounded logical in her head, but her heart wasn't listening. She felt it drop whenever an image of Buffy and Xander flashed through her mind.

Nevertheless, Willow tried to summon up some courage to go on. She didn't want to cut Xander out of her life, even if he now came in a package deal with another girl. She had lived with her unrequited feelings for years, she could still. He was her friend, and nothing would change that. She stood up straight and smoothed her long skirt, before taking a deep breath. Walking over to the sinks and mirror, Willow inspected herself and fixed her hair. The red puffiness around her eyes was mostly gone, she was relieved to see. Grasping the bathroom doorknob, she took another deep breath and turned it.

  
  


For the hundredth time tonight, Xander felt like banging his head against the table repeatedly. 'The Plan' had come apart at the seams. Not only had Willow found out about himself and Buffy, but her 'blind date' had showed up with another girl! You may be older and wiser, Harris, but you're still an idiot

He shouldn't really have been surprised. Oz was in a band, and those guys got all the chicks. His future experiences told him that Oz and this Lori girl wouldn't last, but that didn't mean he wanted to break them up. So, Willow would just have to stick to the singles scene for a while longer. All in all, it hadn't been a great night.

What!? Are you nuts!? Buffy's leaning her head on your shoulder and her hand is on your thigh and this is a bad night? Xander smiled to himself. Maybe things weren't so terrible.

He and Buffy, and Oz and Lori were sitting at the Scooby Gang's customary table in an awkward silence. Their only link to one another, Jesse, had deserted them. He had seen Blayne Mall, supposedly the school's expert seducer, talking to Amy. _His_, in Jesse's distorted opinion, Amy. He hurried off to the dance floor mumbling something about saving her. It gave Xander a feeling of deja vu, since Jesse was doing 'for' Amy exactly what he'd done for Buffy at the same age. Surprisingly, Blayne had moved on to another victim and Jesse and Amy had actually worked up a rapport. Xander saw her laugh at something Jesse said just Willow finally emerged from the bathroom.

She was standing abnormally straight, and doing her best to look nonchalant, but Xander could see through her. She was doing what he half-expected her to do all the time: just pretend there was nothing wrong while her heart was breaking. Willow forced a smile on her face as she strolled casually back to their table. She slowed a bit when she saw the two unfamiliar faces, but Xander gave her a reassuring smile and she continued toward them. Buffy saw her coming and quickly sat up straight in her chair and withdrew her hand from its resting place.

"Hey, Wills," Xander said with a smile, deciding to play along with his friend's 'there's nothing wrong' attitude. Making a decision he hoped didn't insult Buffy too much, he scooted over to another chair, offering the seat between himself and Buffy to Willow. He felt a sharp twinge of guilt at Buffy's momentary hurt expression, but it cleared up when she realized what he was doing.

Willow looked between the two of them, frowning slightly. "I don't have to sit between you two," she mumbled.

Now that's a loaded statement Xander thought as Willow took the stool between Buffy and Lori.

"So," Willow inquired. "Who are our new friends?"

Before Buffy or Xander could answer the new girl at the table spoke up. "Hi! I'm Lori," the brown-haired girl said with a bright smile, seemingly oblivious to the increase in tension Willow's arrival had brought. "And this is my boyfriend Oz," she exclaimed with pride. "He's in a band!"

Oh boy, a mindless groupie. I thought Oz said he didn't go in for that kind of thing Xander thought, not quite rolling his eyes. He did notice, however, that Oz's eyes and smile lingered a little longer than usual when he looked at Willow. Well, at least he's interested. When he and Lori break up he'll probably go after Willow

Willow smiled tightly. "Nice to meet you," she nodded at Lori and Oz. "Willow ... is my name," she said disjointedly, blushing in embarrassment and looking down at the table.

"So, Oz," Xander broke the silence that resulted. "You're in a band, huh?"

"Well, it's not so much a band as it is a bunch of untalented musicians. Still working on a name for us, actually," Oz replied with a slight smile. Xander saw him steal another glance at the glum redhead sitting beside his girlfriend. Maybe this evening wasn't a total waste he thought as Jesse ... and Amy ... walked up to the table. They were ... they were ... holding hands? Xander looked up at his friend in stunned disbelief.

Jesse was grinning from ear to ear, with a healthy smidgen of smugness directed at Xander. He cleared his throat dramatically. "Guys, and girls," he added. "I would just like to announce that Amy, here, of sound mind and great body-" Amy rolled her eyes and smacked Jesse in the arm with her free hand. "Ow! Don't interrupt me woman!" he reprimanded with a smirk and she glared at him while smiling. "Anyway, she has accepted a date with yours truly. Also, Xander, you owe me ten bucks now."

"Well, that depends," Xander answered, and looked at Amy. "Did he drug you? Threaten you or your family? Offer you money? In any way act unethical in his asking-out-of-you?"

Amy laughed at each of Xander's attempts to find a loophole. "Sorry, Xander. He just sweet talked me."

Damn Xander thought as he reached for his wallet. Ten less bucks to spend on the date Saturday He pulled out two fives and grudgingly handed them over to his smiling friend.

"Thankew," Jesse said, taking his winnings, then pulling out a chair and offering it to Amy. Xander rolled his eyes What a gentleman he thought sarcastically.

The table had gotten awfully crowded by that time. The seven people around it were scrunched together pretty tightly, which was not a problem for the six people of the three couples. Unfortunately, Xander saw that the close quarters was not nearly so enjoyable for Willow, who sat there idly stirring her drink with a straw while the others made small talk. She seemed to be getting more melancholy by the minute. Finally, when she'd had enough of the happy atmosphere around her, she drained the rest of her drink and stood up.

"Well, look at the time," she said absently, reaching behind her chair for her jacket. "I've got some homework to finish before school tomorrow, so I'll see you guys later." Xander and Jesse exchanged a look at that. Willow was a terrible liar. Like she'd go out partying if she had school work undone. Xander turned to look Buffy in the eyes and try to explain what he was about to do without words.

"Sure, Wills," he started, still looking at Buffy, then turned to his old friend. "Can I have a word, before ya go, though?"

Willow got a nervous glint in her eye for a moment before she suppressed it. "Fine," she said shortly and made for the Bronze's front entrance without waiting for him to get up.

Which he did, quickly slipping his own jacket on. Glancing at Buffy one last time and giving her a small smile, he turned and followed her.

When he stepped out into the night, Xander saw Willow leaning against the Bronze to his right. Her gaze was downcast, as though something interesting was happening in the vicinity of her feet, which she occasionally scuffed against the cement of the sidewalk. Xander slowly walked toward his friend, but she gave no acknowledgment of his presence.

"Hey Wills," he said softly. He leaned against the wall next to her. Reaching into one of his jacket pockets (it was multi-pocketed, for easy stowage of slaying accessories), he pulled out a pack of Trident. "Gum?" he offered.

He finally broke her out of her trance with his mundane question. She looked up at him in disbelief. She shook her head with a slight smile on her face. Xander unwrapped a piece for himself and popped it in his mouth. For a few seconds there was only the wet sounds of Xander chewing his gum, but then Willow at last spoke up. "What do you want to talk about, Xand?" she asked tiredly.

He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and decide the best course of action. "I know ... how you feel about me, Willow," he said reluctantly.

For a moment Willow's eyes went wide in surprise, just like all crush-ers do when their crushes tell them they know they're being ... crush-ed. Her surprise was soon replaced by a bitter look. "Wow. Only took you ... what ... a decade to figure it out?" she asked sarcastically, folding her arms in front of her chest.

Xander winced at her comment. It was still a sore spot how disregardful he was of Willow's feelings the first time around. "Yeah. I'm ... a little slow," he said with a small grin. It disappeared just as fast as it appeared. "I know that ... you think you love me. But - and I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear - it's-it's not ... _love_" he emphasized.

Willow whirled around and glared at him. "How dare you tell me what I'm feeling! You think _you_ can tell _me_ I don't love you, and-and, I'll j-just _stop_!? You don't think I've tried!? You think I _like_ feeling horrible ever time you gawk at every beautiful girl that-that walks by? I _wish_ I could stop loving you, because it's caused me nothing but pain!" her voice broke as she finished her last exclamation. Her tears started again, and she angrily wiped at them. When Xander took her into his arms she tried to push him away, banging ineffectually on his chest. Eventually, she gave in and sunk into his embrace, sobbing into his shoulder as years of repressed frustration and sadness came pouring out of the little red head.

Xander held her close, making comforting little noises as she cried her heart out. After a few minutes she had stopped, and she gently pulled herself back from his tear-sodden shoulder. Despite her sorry state, Willow smiled marginally up at her friend. "Thank you," she said quietly.

He grinned back at her. "No problem, Wills," he said softly. "And Wills ... you _are_ beautiful," she looked like she was going to shake that off, so he reiterated. "No, you are. Don't ever let anyone say you aren't. Didn't you see the way Oz was checking you out in there?" he asked with a smirk. She looked surprised and stared doubtfully at him. He turned serious again. "I wish I could have returned your feelings, Willow, but ... I think my heart was waiting for its owner."

Willow put two and two together and gasped in surprise. "Buffy!? You ... love her?" Xander smiled and nodded. "B-But you've only known her a month!" Willow blurted out, but then reconsidered her words. "... a-and five years, right. Uh, nevermind." she looked down with an embarrassed smile.

"C-can you, um, not tell Buffy that," Xander pleaded. "Don't what her to think I'm already thinking of names for our kids."

Willow smiled kindly at him. "Or she may have some ideas of her own. Buffy's a good friend to me, Xand. I don't think she'd trample my feelings for you into the ground lightly."

Xander felt a grin grow over his face. "I can only hope." He took her into another hug, which she returned immediately. "Are we gonna be OK?" he asked hopefully.

Willow smiled into his shoulder. "Yeah, Xand. We-"

Willow's reply was cut off, however, when she felt herself being grabbed from behind. She let out a surprised squeak before she was torn away from Xander and thrown back-first into the side of the Bronze. She saw stars as her head connected with the brick wall. She shook her head to clear her vision and looked at the scene before her with horror.

Xander was shocked by Willow's sudden departure from his arms, and when he opened his eyes, he saw her being hurled backwards by a slim but well-built, vamped-out creature of the night. Xander was about to jump to his friend's aid, when a boot lashed out from his left and kicked him in the gut. The air immediately left his lungs and he inadvertently bent at the waist. He gasped in a breath before a knee was brought up into his face and he was straightened up and knocked over. From the ground, he could taste the coppery flavor of blood in his mouth, and he saw Willow's attacker advancing toward him. Xander saw Willow look at him with terror in her eyes. "Will ... get Buff!" He managed to gasp out. His friend shakily got to her feet and ran back to the Bronze.

Xander tried to get to his feet, but he felt both his arms being grabbed and he was hauled up by two vampires on either side of him. He struggled against them, but they had iron grips on his wrists. The two pulled him backwards and slammed him into the wall. Xander let out a gasp of pain. The third vampire advanced menacingly towards him, showcasing his long fangs for his victim. In a flash of intuition, Xander realized who his foes were. Most vamps, when they were about to feed, liked to 'play with food', for lack of a better phrase. These three were just going for the kill. Like they were professionals. _Three_ pros. _The_ Three. The vampire assassins that almost did in Buffy so many years ago.

He only had seconds left. Struggling against the vamps holding his arms was futile. When the third vampire came within range, Xander tried to kick him in the groin. It was the only chance he had left. And the vamp knew it too. He smoothly sidestepped the kick, grabbed his leg and pushed it back down, closing the distance between them in a second. The vamp assassin opened his mouth and prepared to bite down. Xander cursed his luck.

Buffy would be too late.

Again.

She would watch him die.

Again.

Dammit

Xander had resigned himself to his fate when salvation came in an unexpected form.

The vampire on his right suddenly released his arm and grunted in pain. Xander vaguely heard the 'poof' that arose from the death of a vampire, but he was concentrating on putting his newly acquired freedom to use. The other two vampires stopped, and looked at their deceased comrade. For once, luck was with Xander. He had a cross in his right jacket pocket, which he quickly grabbed and brought up between himself and the vamp about to feed off him. He shoved it forward and was rewarded with a satisfying 'hiss' as the holy relic burned the creature. It staggered back with a short screech and leapt ... away from Xander. It attacked a tall dark form to Xander's right.

Xander didn't take the time to notice this. He swung his cross around and pressed it against the arm of the vamp on his left. It almost immediately let Xander go, but then snarled in rage and jumped at him. Xander held the cross up, but the vamp knocked it out of his hand with a well placed kick. Taking the offensive, Xander lunged forward and walloped the vamp with a punch straight to its face. Or tried to. It nimbly dodged his punch and grabbed Xander's arm. With its other arm, the vamp spun and elbowed Xander in the back of the neck. The young man stumbled face first into the wall. Before he could recover the vampire punched him twice in the kidneys, sending waves of pain through him. The vampire spun a groaning Xander around and vamped out.

"Get away from my boyfriend!!" an irate voice demanded from Xander's left. The vampire snapped its head toward the interruption and was kicked in the face for his trouble. Xander slumped to the ground, clutching his bruised sides. He saw Buffy run past him in a blur, no doubt going to wreak horrible vengeance on the vampire who attacked him. Out of the fight, Xander took stock of the situation.

He looked for the first vampire who tried to feed off him. It was engaged in a fight with ... Xander groaned, and not from the pain. Angel. Deadboy had saved his life. He'd never live this down. Angel must have crept stealthily (since he'd had a good hundred years of practice) up on the first vampire and staked him in the back. Then he'd taken on the second one to give him time to break free. Considerate of him

Buffy's fighting was fueled by anger, and while it took a little longer against the skilled vampire, she eventually came out on top. Her stake penetrated the vamp's heart and it died with a soundless scream. Then she broke into Angel's fight and sweep kicked the last member of the Three. She was bringing her stake down even before it hit the ground, and then it was just so much dust.

As soon as the Three were no more, Buffy hurried to Xander's side. "Xander! Are you OK!?" she asked, concern coloring her every syllable.

He tried to smile back at her, but it came out more like a grimace. "I am now."

For some reason, she seemed taken aback by his answer, but she quickly recovered and helped him up. Willow came running up, Jesse on her heels, with Oz and Lori and Amy staying back. Willow hugged him tightly, which caused Xander considerable pain, given voice in a long moan. "Oops! Sorry, Xand," Willow said sheepishly, letting him go and stepping back.

"What happened?" Lori asked.

"Mugging," Xander claimed immediately. "Me and Angel scared 'em off."

"Who?" Oz questioned, looking confused.

Xander and Buffy turned to indicate Angel, but instead they found an empty street.

"Where'd he go?" Buffy wondered.

Xander sighed loudly. "Oh, don't mind him. He's just big on stealthy entrances and exits," loudly, he continued. "I know you haven't gone far, Angel! So, don't say I never thanked you!!" Then he winced again and leaned against Buffy for more support.

"Maybe you should go to the hospital," Lori recommended.

Xander shook his head. "I'll be all right. Nothing's broken; I'll just have a few bruises in the morning."

"Let's get you home, then," Buffy offered. She turned to the rest of her friends. "I'll walk him home. You guys just ... do whatever," she said dismissively, her attention focused on Xander. The two began slowly walking down the street, and the last thing they heard was Lori's normal-anywhere-but-on-the-Hellmouth question: "Shouldn't we call the police?"

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_10:30 PM_

_Two Blocks From Harris Residence_

  
  


"Ohhhh," Xander moaned. "This is gonna hurt come winter."

Buffy smirked back at him. "It's February. It is winter."

Xander smiled through his wince. "Then how is what I said wrong?"

Buffy chuckled, then turned serious. "So, how did things go with Willow? Y'know, before the fight?"

Xander smiled slightly. "It's gonna be OK. She had it out with me. Released all her pent-up emotions. I mean, she's not just gonna stop loving me, but she'll get over it eventually."

"Well, that's good, seeing as how your 'ingenious plan' just completely bombed."

"Hey!" Xander cried indignantly. "'The Plan' did not _completely_ bomb!"

"Oh, please, Xand!" Buffy rolled her eyes. "That plan could not have gone more wrong. It was the Hindenburg of 'plans gone wrong'."

"Nuh-uh!" Xander insisted. "Didn't you see Oz making googly-eyes at Willow? He and that Lori chick aren't going to last, and who do you think he's going to run to when she's gone?"

Buffy regarded him skeptically. "I really didn't notice a lot of any emotion in that guy."

"Yeah, he's cool as a cucumber in times of crisis. The first time he saw a vamp get dusted in front of him, you know what he said?" he asked rhetorically, then continued without waiting for Buffy to answer. "He said, 'Actually, it explains a lot'. He's just ... unreal."

Buffy and Xander stopped in front of his house, Xander finally taking his weight off his girlfriend's shoulder. They stood in a comfortable silence for a few moments, then Xander asked. "Buff? ... How come you looked surprised before? After you finished off that last vamp and you asked if I was all right, and I said 'I am now'."

Even in the shadowy night Buffy's blush was obvious as she stared down at her feet. "Deja vu," she said. "I, um, had a dream when I fell asleep in science class today. You were being attacked by a couple of vampires. I killed 'em, and when I asked if you were OK, you looked up at me and said 'I am now'."

Xander took a step closer to Buffy. "And then what happened?" he asked in a low voice.

Buffy licked her lips and, looking him straight in the eyes, continued. "Then ... I helped you up, and ..." a smile formed on her lips. "... you said I looked beautiful."

"Buffy," Xander said with a husky tone. "You are the most stunning woman I have ever met."

Buffy felt her heart start to race as Xander played the part in her fantasy. Swallowing the lump forming in her throat, she finished her tale. "And, then ... you ... you ... kissed me." As she spoke Xander leaned closer and closer, until she could feel his warm breath on her face. And then he kissed her.

It wasn't like the dream kiss, intensely passionate. There were no tongues involved, no clinging to one another as they drowned in a sea of passion. Just a sweet, long connection of their lips that nevertheless left Buffy's knees feeling weak. When they broke apart, Buffy wore what she thought was the widest smile she'd ever smiled. Then the two of them remembered to breath and there were simultaneous exhalations.

"Wow!" they both said at the same time.

"That was ... wow," Buffy was speechless.

Xander smirked lecherously at her. "I really put it on you, huh?"

She was too out of it to answer though. She just nodded dumbly, apparently unaware of what she was agreeing to.

"Well, Buff, now that the good night kiss is out of the way, I guess all that's left is ... good night." he took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Buffy smiled brightly at him. "G'night, Xand."

He unlocked his front door and blew Buffy a kiss before closing it behind him.

Leaving Buffy standing on his front lawn feeling downright giddy. With a smile she couldn't wipe off her face if she tried, she walked away and headed for the nearest cemetery. She'd promised Giles she would do a cursory patrol before turning in for the night. With the day she'd been having, she expected that nothing could go wrong.

It never occurred to her that thinking like that on a Hellmouth is tempting the fates to prove her wrong.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_February 6, 1997_

_8:00 AM_

_In Front of Summers Residence_

  
  


Xander rocked back and forth on his heels as he leaned against the fence separating the Summers' property from their neighbors'. The injuries he'd sustained the night before had faded to a dull ache in his bones. A lot of the pain was overridden by the sheer joy he felt this morning. The look on Buffy's face after he'd kissed her last night ... it was ... awe-inspiring. He'd _never_ seen anyone look so happy and content. Angel had never made her look like that, and the fact that he could made his heart swell with pride.

So, it was a real downer when instead of uber-happy Buffy stepping out of her house to walk to school with him, he saw a happy-to-see-him, yet subdued Buffy. Xander immediately picked up on her mood and started to feel anxious. What's changed since last night? She doesn't ... regret it, does she? he thought fearfully.

"Buff, what's wrong?"

She put a smile on her face as she walked up to him, and stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss good morning. His romantically-linked fears subsided, but then what was Buffy upset about?

Her smile faded away and an aura of sadness descended over her. "I ran into that ... claw guy last night."

A feeling of cold dread crystalized in the pit of Xander's stomach. Buffy didn't have a mark on her, so he assumed she'd come through it all right. Which meant someone else had gotten hurt. "What happened?"

"I was on patrol last night, after I dropped you off," a smile crossed her face at the memory, but dropped off as she continued. "I was walking down the street that that ... Bug Lady lived on, and ... I heard a scream," Buffy swallowed thickly and went on. "I ran to see what was happening, and ... and the claw guy had ... he'd ... it was Oz and Lori!" she blurted out finally.

Xander heart just stopped. He was surprised he didn't faint from the fright he was feeling at that moment. "Are they all right?" he asked shakily, already dreading the answer.

Buffy paused again, collecting herself. "Oz is ... the vamp just knocked him away with his non-claw hand. But-but Lori ... it-it ... oh, God! It ripped her throat out!" tears came to her eyes, and Xander pulled his girlfriend into a comforting embrace, which she accepted readily. "I couldn't save her! I-I knew her and I couldn't save her!" she cried into his shoulder.

As Xander tried to console his distraught girlfriend, a single, terrible thought came blasting unasked through his mind:

This is your fault

Xander tried to blink away his own tears. It was true. Oz lived across town from the Bronze. To get to his place from the club, he would have to walk down the street that Buffy had identified as the place the murder had occurred. If Oz hadn't come to the Bronze last night with Lori, she would still be alive. He had invited them to the Bronze last night. Therefore:

THIS  
IS  
YOUR  
FAULT

"Oh, God. It's my fault!" Xander moaned in grief.

Buffy smothered her sorrow long enough to reassure her boyfriend. "Xand, no. You-you couldn't have known!"

"Yes it is, dammit!" he shouted, pushing away from Buffy. "If it wasn't for my stupid, stupid 'plan'," he said the word with disgust. "Oz and Lori wouldn't even have been there last night! This didn't happen before! Therefore, it. Is. My. Fault." he emphasized the words. He turned away from Buffy and leaned against the fence again, facing away from her and the condemnation he was sure was filling her beautiful eyes.

He flinched when he felt Buffy's arms circle his waist and hug him from behind, resting her head on his back. Normally this show of affection would get him excited, but now it merely provided a little consolation that he so desperately needed. "We're so alike, you know that?" Buffy said quietly. "When you first met me ... I mean, when _I_ first met _you_, I guess, you said I had a 'world-on-my-shoulders' complex. And now you've got one too. Every time someone dies because one of the creatures of the night kill them, the guilt just ... threatens to overwhelm me. And you, now. Us. You just have to keep reminding yourself about the lives you save, or else you'll fall apart. And you have saved people, Xand. Jesse. Those people at the Bronze. Dr. Gregory. If you weren't here now, those people wouldn't be alive today. The fact that you save people doesn't make up for those you don't, in our minds, anyway, but ... it helps."

Xander couldn't think straight. Every time he thought he couldn't possibly love Buffy any more that he did, she would go and do something that would prove him wrong. The tenderness of her reassuring words caused even more tears to flow from his eyes, but they went a long way to mending his wounded soul. Xander turned around in her arms and embraced her close. They stood there for a long minute, silently reassuring each other as they held each other for dear life. When finally they composed themselves, the stepped away from each other and walked wordlessly to school, tightly entwining their hands together.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_12:15 PM_

_SHS Library_

  
  


The sadness in the room seemed infectious. Xander and Buffy sat close to one another, drawing comfort from each other's presence. Amy had come along with Jesse to the meeting today. Willow sat back in her chair, hugging herself. Giles seemed least affected by the night's events, as was expected. But then, Giles always hid his grief so that he could act as comforting 'father-figure' to his 'children'.

At the center of all the despondency was stoic Oz, looking stricken. Xander had only seen him like this twice before - when he had caught himself and Willow kissing in the factory, and when he'd been forced to leave Willow midway through freshman year at college. Though he and Lori had only been going out for two weeks, the trauma of seeing someone you care about murdered before your eyes was not something easily dealt with.

Giles had just finished giving a condensed version of the story of vampires to Oz. He had come to the library before classes in the morning to politely thank Buffy for her help and to ask for an explanation about what had happened. Apparently, Buffy had dusted the vamp right in front of him before they hurried Lori to the hospital in a pointless exercise in futility.

Oz sat there for a few moments, and then in his characteristically terse way, he said. "I want to help."

Of course he would. His girlfriend just got killed by vampires. He may look calm on the outside, but inside he wants to rip every creature of the night he sees into little pieces

Giles looked about ready to protest. Xander hadn't mentioned Oz's future 'membership' in the Scooby Gang to him, so the Watcher was probably loathe to let anyone else get involved in the slaying game.

"You've got it, Oz," Xander approved. "We can use all the help we can get." Xander tried to avoid Oz's eyes when the short guitarist looked at him. He still blamed himself for Lori's death. Nothing Buffy could say would change that fundamental truth. When he finally looked in their pained depths, he knew what he had to do.

Xander had been thinking about something all day during classes. Last night had been a real eye opener for him. Xander had never really considered the consequences of his killing of Darla. She was just another vampire, he thought. Until he remembered something Giles had said about her being the Master's favorite childe. Apparently, he had _really_ pissed the big guy off if he was willing to send vampire assassins of the Three's caliber against him. Xander doubted the failed attempt last night would dampen the Master's desire for vengeance.

And then there was Lori's death. He had been unable to prevent that. Even though he'd been no where in the vicinity at the time, it was still a failure on his part. He couldn't afford failures anymore. But what could he do? Buffy was the Slayer. All he had going for him was his future knowledge. A useful tool, but what happens when the unforeseen pops up? Things had been so different this time around, and even more changes were likely to occur. He needed to be ready.

Xander had never really given much thought in his past to actually learning to fight. Buffy did most of the fighting, and he picked up what he could. He'd never really seen the necessity. He did now. If he wanted to protect people, he needed to be able to take care of himself first. Looking into Oz's sad eyes now strengthened his resolve. After school, he would tell Buffy and Giles that he wanted to train with them. He'd make sure as few people died because of him as possible.

Never again He resolved, knowing how unlikely that pledge was even as he silently made it. Never again

  
  


End X


	5. Predatory Acts

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.

  
  


**__**Chapter XI - Predatory Acts**__**

  
  


**__**_March 4, 1997_

_8:20 PM_

_Oz's Van, en route to Sunnydale Zoo_

  
  


Xander leaned his head back and rested against the slightly vibrating interior wall in the back of Oz's van, where he and his friends/fighters of evil sat waiting for their arrival at the zoo. He closed his eyes and sighed while going over what he expected to happen tonight in his head and pondering what could possibly go wrong. This should be a relatively easy mission. One power-hungry zookeeper and some possessed but locked up hyenas. As long as they stayed out of the ritual's circle and avoided eye contact with the hyenas, very little could go wrong. Xander had informed his friends of this danger, so they should be OK.

Lately, he'd had mixed success in his overall mission. He had started training with the Slayer and her Watcher shortly after the debacle surrounding Lori's death. Originally, Giles had been deadset against it, claiming that only Buffy should get that deeply involved in the fighting side of the Slaying work. Xander had expected Buffy to side with her Watcher, but surprisingly she had taken his side. She later explained that she understood his reasons and that refusing to train him would just mean he'd go somewhere else to learn to fight. This way, he and Buffy could develop complementary fighting styles. Eventually, Giles had buckled under and conceded.

Xander started out with a less intensive version of Buffy's own training regimen. Unfortunately, going through exercises meant for a super strong and high endurance Slayer was not the way to go for a regular guy, as he soon found out. Xander conceded that he would have trouble matching even younger vampires in the brute strength department, so he and Giles decided on a program that emphasized speed and agility over the hard-hitting approach Buffy took. It was, Giles commented after one of their training sessions, a nice change of pace from the thrashings Buffy dealt out when he trained her. For his part, Xander was impressed by the older man's skills and endurance. Training a Slayer was taxing enough without someone else demanding equal attention and instruction. And yet the Watcher tirelessly gave his time to help his two charges and still found time to research and fill out reports to his superiors and all the other myriad tasks required for his double life as Watcher and librarian.

Eventually, a routine was worked out that was easier on Giles. He would start out leading Buffy through her warm ups, followed by a short sparring session that invariably ended after the third or fourth time Giles was brought down to the mats. Then, if he so deemed it necessary, a little weapons training. Meanwhile, Xander would be doing calisthenics, weight training, and other conditioning exercises, usually while being badgered by Jesse. It took time to get his lanky body into the condition required for intensive training and fighting vampires. After Buffy had finished with him, Giles would then instruct Xander through some new kata, or attack/defense sequence, a much less draining activity for the Watcher. They'd go back and forth across the training room, alternating attack and defense for around an hour, until Xander was sure he could do the moves in his sleep. Then, once Giles was completely tired out, Buffy would come and deflate Xander's ego as surely as a pin pops a balloon. Xander had not once in their short sparring matches so much as made Buffy break a sweat. Along with being freakishly strong (a description he used only in his mind), she was light years faster than him and able to dodge what few shots he got through her defenses. The next thing he'd know he would be looking up at her smirking, unperspiring face from the mat. He'd always get her back, though. After their bouts, he'd lay one on her. A long, passionate kiss, that is. She'd always come out of those with a dreamy, Xander-whipped (again, a term _never_ spoken aloud) smile on her face. It made the humiliating defeats all worthwhile.

Xander got a chance to field test his embryonic fighting skills a couple weeks after he'd started training. He'd run into Marc Theron in the hallway at school and nearly freaked out when he remembered that the boy was actually an organ-harvesting demon in human form. He'd killed a couple people sometime in April, around the time of the school talent show. Xander decided to bring it to the gang's attention.

Killing the demon brought up something of a moral dilemma, Giles had pointed out. Marc was technically a human at the time. He would fight like a human and die like one. Xander cleared up that problem by suggesting a spell that would bring out the demon's true form. He remembered that working on the 'Hansel and Gretel' demon in senior year. It took Giles, Willow, and Amy a good day to find that incantation in the book collection.

The gang then lured Marc to a deserted locale near the school and set to work. Giles cast the spell, and Marc screamed as his skin ripped off to reveal green scales. Buffy then jumped in to fight the Marc-demon, wielding a wickedly sharp longsword. Slayer skills or not, though, Buffy had only trained with a sword a couple times, and she had it knocked away from her during the fight. The demon seemed just as strong as Buffy and she was dazed by a couple good hits it got in on her. Then it grabbed Buffy up by the neck and tried to squeeze her head off.

A crossbow bolt fired by Giles barely penetrated its thick hide. Xander jumped in to help Buffy, but learned very quickly that two weeks of training did not a great fighter make. He'd tried to break the demon's leg in half by stomping diagonally on his knee joint, but found that his foe was double jointed. Which freaked him out for a moment and allowed the creature to effortlessly backhand him about ten feet away. It did distract the thing momentarily, though, allowing Buffy to break free of its grip. A few solid punches and kicks later, the demon had been knocked down. Jesse had picked up the fallen sword during the battle and he chucked it back to the Slayer. Buffy caught it in mid-air and in the same motion swung it across the prone demon's neck, decapitating it. A quick stab to the heart later and the thing was dead for good.

Score one more for the good guys, even if it wouldn't be on the Xander highlight reel.

The same couldn't be said for the next big event to come their way.

Last Monday, Buffy had returned from her previous night's patrol with a ring she'd picked out of the dust pile of a slain vampire. Xander had a feeling he knew what the sun and three stars symbol emblazoned on the underside of the ring meant, and Giles confirmed it after a few minutes. The Order of Aurelius was in town, which meant that they were going to try and raise the Anointed One out of the 'ashes of the Five', in accordance with a related prophecy. The Five being, Xander recalled, passengers on a bus that was going to crash that night.

Unfortunately, he had no idea which bus it was or where it would crash. Enter Willow "Hacker" Rosenberg. Xander vaguely remembered the accident had occurred just outside the town limits somewhere. Willow semi-legally (which was an exaggeration in the 'legal' direction) pulled up passenger manifestos for all routes leaving or coming into Sunnydale. The buses with more than five passengers were eliminated, leaving two which fit that criterion. One of the remaining buses was due to enter Sunnydale before sunset, and was therefore excluded as well, leaving the number 56 outbound to Sacramento at 11:48 PM as the final possibility.

That night, the Scooby Gang hopped into Oz's van to find and follow the doomed bus. Unfortunately, they never made it.

The fan belt in Oz's van snapped halfway there.

It was a ridiculous way to be put out of the game. Oz swore that he'd just had his van completely checked over just a month before, and that everything had been fine then.

They tried again to stop the Anointed One the next night by searching the funeral home where the bodies of the crash/vampire victims were taken to. The first time, Xander remembered, they had mistaken that big, psycho guy who rose for the Anointed One. This time, Xander knew to look for the young boy who was going to rise at the same time. He and Buffy made short work of the big vamp, while the others held off the Order's brethren, but the Anointed One was nowhere to be found in the funeral home. He'd either not been brought there or had been spirited away by the Order of Aurelius during the fight.

The failure had been eating at Xander for the past week. He was getting a little nervous at the possible reason for it. He knew the Anointed One featured prominently in the upcoming prophecy regarding Buffy's death, a prediction which was supposedly infallible. Unbeatable. No loopholes. Fated.

Was that what broke down Oz's van on the highway? Fate? Oz's vehemence about his vehicle's road-worthiness was making him think so. And it was giving Xander frightening thoughts. Did this mean that Buffy _had_ to die? That there was absolutely no way he could do anything to prevent it? Technically, Buffy _had_ died last time, so it was a possibility Xander was considering. And fearing.

Xander felt the van slowing down and eventually stop. "We're here," Oz announced redundantly from the driver's seat. The diminutive musician was still downcast from his girlfriend's death, but he was recovering faster than Xander thought he would. The presence of a certain redhead probably had something to do with that.

He and Jesse, sitting opposite one another by the back doors, opened them and hopped out the back. Then they offered their hands to 'their ladies', a term which irritated Buffy and Amy to no end, to help them down.

Amy. That was one twist he hadn't seen coming. Originally, after the whole mess involving her mom, Amy Madison had faded into the background of the Sunnydale slaying scene. Though she knew about the existence of the supernatural, she'd had no desire to become involved in the Gang's dangerous world. Understandably.

But this time, she'd started hanging around with them shortly after Jesse asked her out. That inexorably led to getting entangled in the wonderful world of vampire slaying. She was helpful in that she had some residual knowledge of magic from her body switching experience. Xander guessed that was how she became such an accomplished witch in his time, being able to cast the rat-making spell while Willow, and Tara eventually, could never reverse it in three years of trying.

"I don't need your help, Xand," Buffy ignored his offered hand semi-politely and jumped out the back of the van herself. Amy did the same to Jesse and Giles followed them out a second later. Willow had sat up front with Oz, determined to keep away from the happy couples as much as possible.

"But, Buff," Xander said. "What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't offer my girl help up and down big steps? Or if I didn't open car doors for you? Or tell you how delectable you look in that black-on-black ensemble?" He surveyed her in her leather pants and black short-sleeved shirt with a naughty grin.

Buffy smiled up at him and circled her arms around his neck. "Well, it's the thought that counts, I guess."

"Do I get a reward?" he asked. Suggestively, of course.

Buffy shifted her eyes toward the dark sky and adopted a thoughtful expression as she seemed to consider that for a few seconds. "Well ... seeing as I was going to, ahem, 'reward' you, anyway..." She trailed off as she gave him a nice, long, ahem, tongue lashing. They were still basking in the gleeful opening stages of their relationship.

The noise of exaggerated gagging broke them apart finally. "Good God, you guys," Jesse admonished. "This is a public place! Don't you have any decency?"

Amy cocked an eyebrow and folded her arms across her chest. "So you don't think two people should feel free to express their feelings, Jesse?"

Jesse realized his mistake. Never, ever offer an opinion on romance in front of your girlfriend unless you're absolutely positive she agrees.

Xander snickered. "Uh, oh. How will our intrepid hero get himself out of this one?" he whispered to Buffy. She giggled and his heart flip-flopped as per usual.

Jesse was trying to stammer out a reply to his slightly peeved girlfriend. "Uh, well, I, y'see, I didn't, um, I didn't mean _us_, Amy," he said lamely. She was not convinced. "Oh! Um, see, it's just, I'm not used to, uh, to public displays of affections since, since most girls, y'know, would sooner laugh in my face than, um, kiss me," he finished his excuse with a poor excuse for puppy dog eyes.

"Ohhhh," Amy started softly. "When you give me those poor puppy dog eyes, I just, I just ... can't stop laughing!" Which she did, and the others soon joined in. Except for Giles, who was regarding the teenagers' interaction with as much distaste as he usually did.

The older man broke in when the laughter had more or less died down. "Yes, well, now that the requisite, uh, kissing a-and joking is out of the way can we please go off to battle?"

"Sure thing, G-Man," Jesse exclaimed, eager to get out of his embarrassing position. "Let's take down those feisty felines!"

Willow sighed and shook her head as the group started walking toward the zoo's back entrance. "Jesse, how many times do I have to tell you? Hyenas _aren't_ felines!"

Xander grinned as his two friends continued bantering while they approached the locked perimeter fence. Willow had largely shaken off the funk she'd fallen into when he and Buffy had started dating. She still wasn't A-OK with it, but she was moving on.

Finally, the group reached the locked delivery gate behind the zoo's main holding areas. The fence was a good twelve feet high and topped with razor sharp, coiled barb wire. The gate before them was closed securely with a length of chain and a large padlock. Or rather, it would be secure if a Slayer weren't trying to break in. Buffy snapped the chain with ease and pulled the gate open.

The gang quickly made their way inside to avoid any prying eyes and security guards hanging around. Not that much caution was warranted. If the Sunnydale Police were the pinnacle of law and order in this town, security guards must be phenomenally incompetent.

They quickly found the entrance to the Hyena House, cordoned off and designated as off limits to the public. Just as Xander remembered it from the day long ago he'd gone in there to root out a bunch of bullies and ended up getting possessed by a predatory spirit. He hadn't told his friends about _that _little incident, not even Buffy. He'd just claimed a bunch of students got possessed on the field trip they were taking tomorrow. He didn't think that Buffy would like to know that her boyfriend had tried to rape her once, possessed or not.

"All right," Giles said. "I-I believe our best course of action w-would be to let Buffy and Xander confront this-this zookeeper fellow on their own. The rest of us should stand aside a-a-and render assistance, if necessary."

Jesse huffed. "How come they get to have all the fun?"

Giles rolled his eyes and looked about ready to chastise the boy over his gung-ho attitude when Willow broke in. "He was just kidding, Giles."

"Yeah," Oz commented. "If you wanna get by in America, you need to be able to pick up on all the sarcastic nuances of the English language."

While Giles raved on how far their language was from _actual _English, Xander turned to his girlfriend, smiling mirthfully at the bickering. She was unarmed tonight. A stake couldn't be used against a human being. In fact, they had no idea what they were going to do with the zookeeper. There was no criminal statute against 'attempted possession'. They couldn't just kill him, either. Their 'plan', such as it was, involved killing the hyenas with the shotgun Oz had brought.

"So, Buff, ready to make the world a little safer for regular, un-possessed zoo animals?" Xander asked.

She smiled back at him. "Uh huh. Giles?" The mentioned Englishmen stopped his tirade to turn to Buffy. "Now that the requisite, uh, American-bashing is out of the way can w-we please go off to battle?" She asked in a mockery of his own impatient question from earlier.

Giles had to decency to look ashamed.

"Uh, er, y-yes," he stammered.

"OK, guys," Xander said. "You just sit tight, we'll be back in a flash." He and Buffy walked off to the Hyena House entrance. Xander got there first and lifted the cordon for Buffy. "Slayers first."

"What a gentleman," Buffy cooed sarcastically as she ducked under the cord.

"Yeah. The top hat and cane are in the mail."

  
  


Buffy and Xander crept slowly through the gloomy corridors of the darkened building, headed toward the flickering of light which highlighted the zookeeper's location. The frustrated sounds the man was making were also a dead giveaway. The man was trying without success to perform the ritual to transfer the hyena spirits into his own body. Giles' research beforehand had shown that the incantation required the caster to perform a 'predatory act' for the hyena spirit to switch hosts. The man wasn't carrying one out at the moment, which was why his spell wasn't working.

Buffy poked her head around the corner of the hallway into the room identified above the door as the hyenas' feeding area. She saw a man clad in traditional African garb, consisting of various animal skins and an elaborate headdress. He held a long stick in his hand, which he was clenching tightly at the moment. The zookeeper stood in the center of a circle etched on the floor, with several indecipherable symbols around it. He was facing slightly away from the entrance, presumably towards the hyenas, if the snarling and growling sounds were any indication.

Buffy stepped through the doorway with Xander right behind. "Well," she said, catching the zookeeper's attention. The man spun to face them. "Nice get up you've got there. Pretty daring. Personally, I like a little fake fur or a leopard skin wrap, but you've just gone the extra mile, haven't you?"

"Who are you?" he demanded in a menacing voice.

"Avon calling! Would you like a complimentary catalogue? Y'know, to accessorize."

Xander finally interrupted his girlfriend. "Geez, Buff. There's such a thing as taking a taunt too far."

Buffy sighed. "Fine." She addressed the zookeeper again. "We're the good guys. Here to stop you from performing the evil ritual and wreaking havoc on beautiful Sunnydale. So put the stick down and step away from the circle."

The zookeeper didn't obey. In a rage borne out of his failed attempts to cast the spell and the presumption of these _children _that _they_ could stop him, he raised his stick like a club and charged the Slayer.

On his way to Buffy, the zookeeper's eyes caught those of a hyena staring at him from the feeding area. Just for a moment. That was all that it took.

Giles and the others had assumed that the 'predatory act' required for the ritual was a sacrifice. Or an attempted sacrifice, Xander had suggested. The zookeeper had seized the power the first time by threatening Willow with a knife. What they didn't know was that 'predatory acts' encompassed a broad range of actions. The predatory instinct is a deep-seeded one in the human psyche. It was prevalent in early humans, who had to hunt their own food, but was damped down in much of the population as crop-growing took hold of humanity. In the twentieth century, the age of fast food and fast service, predation is virtually non-existent. At least overtly. Every so often, the instinct shines through, or influences a person's actions. Killing, in any form, is an outcome of predatory behavior. Inciting violence. Fighting. _Wanting_ to fight.

Xander should have realized it. He had been possessed by the hyena spirit, but he hadn't committed any outward predatory acts to have caused it. The bullies that formed his 'Pack' were picking on someone, so that was how they came to be possessed. But Xander was just trying to stop them. He _did_, however, feel a great deal of anger toward the bullies, stored up rage from years of taunting and being victimized by 'mean kids'. And that was all that was needed for the transfer of the spirit. He _wanted_ to hurt them. A predatory instinct.

And so, when the zookeeper rushed Buffy, looking to cause her pain, he committed a predatory act. The hyena's eyes flashed green. The zookeeper's eyes flashed the same shade and the spirit jumped into his body.

The man staggered for a moment, caught unawares by the sudden surge of power coursing through him. He dropped his stick and clenched and unclenched his hands. "The power ... I have it!" Then he turned back to Buffy, snarled and pounced.

He leapt at Buffy with a speed she'd only thought a demon or herself could match. She was caught off guard and nailed with two strong punches which knocked her off her feet. The zookeeper apparently expected that to take her out of the fight and he turned on Xander, also standing there in shock. From the floor, Buffy saw Xander adopt a fighting stance and lash out at the possessed man with a kick to his side. It hit, but barely budged the supernaturally strong being. A high-pitched, mocking laughter filled the air as Xander struck out repeatedly at the zookeeper, hardly fazing him. Finally tiring of Xander's attacks, the hyena-possessed man blocked a punch and lambasted the young man with a wicked right to the face. Xander flew back and bounced off the wall, grimacing in pain.

Buffy saw red. Oh no you did _not_ just hurt the man I l...like a lot Leaving that confusing thought behind, Buffy jumped back to her feet and ran at their assailant. She jump kicked him in the back and followed that up with a barrage of punches and kicks that staggered the zookeeper back. A vicious spin kick knocked him a few feet back and on his ass. Inside the magic circle. Buffy heedlessly stepped in to attack the man again. They locked eyes for a second and the spirit jumped again.

  
  


Xander groaned as he rubbed his back. He didn't know how the zookeeper had gotten the hyenas to possess him, but it sounded like Buffy had things well in hand. Looking up and opening his eyes, he saw his girlfriend picking up the man from the ground. A corner of his mind noted that they were both within the ritualistic circle but he didn't think about that at first. His jaw dropped in horror as he saw Buffy hurl the man into the hyena pen, where the ravenous creatures almost immediately started ripping him to shreds. The zookeeper's' screams filled the room.

Xander was shocked. That was how they'd gotten rid of the man last time, but Buffy had _accidently_ thrown him to the wolves, or hyenas, as it were. He'd just seen Buffy deliberately toss the man to his death. He couldn't fathom why she would have done that.

Until he heard the laughter.

The zookeeper's screams had died down and the sound of Buffy's giggling fell on Xander's ears. But it wasn't the bubbly, happy giggle he loved so much. It had a malicious lilt to it. An exaggerated inflection that he'd only heard once before.

Coming out of his mouth.

"Buff," Xander choked out through a suddenly tight throat. "Oh, God no."

Buffy turned to face him. Her eyes flashed green.

Xander was torn as to what to do. On the one hand, he was now faced with a hyena-possessed Slayer, who had just killed someone (albeit a bad guy) and could rip him in two without even trying. That hand wanted him to head for the hills and call in the cavalry. On the other hand, this was Buffy, his girlfriend, and he instinctively wanted to help her, stop her from doing anything else her unpossessed incarnation would regret. Like going around eating people. Or 'mating' with people.

The decision was taken out of his hands, however. His girlfriend flashed him a quick smile before taking off running for the opposite side of the building. Xander tried to pursue her, but gave up when she jumped through and shattered a window five feet above the ground. Xander dashed over to the window and tried to break off the jagged edges of glass Buffy's exit had left so that he could give chase, but gave up as he looked outside. The Slayer was already gone, disappeared into the multitude of alleys and shadow-filled nooks and crannies between the buildings at the zoo.

Xander stood stock-still for several more seconds, letting the enormity of this situation catch up with him. The Slayer was possessed. The guy they used to dump the spirit in was dead. _Buffy _was possessed. The hyena spirit was loose in the world in one of the most deadly bodies known to man. His _girlfriend_ was possessed. That was his most common thought. What in the hell happened!?

Then Xander mentally slapped himself. Buffy had stepped into the circle with the possessed zookeeper. Trying to beat the snot out of the guy must rank pretty high on the predatory acts list. Xander shook himself out of his disbelief. _How_ this happened was totally irrelevant. He needed to get her unpossessed. He'd need the gang's help.

Galvanized into action by his first coherent plan in a few minutes, Xander quickly made his way out of the Hyena House and met his anxious friends standing near the entrance. Giles regarded his solitary return with surprise at first, but was soon followed by dawning realization and horror. "Where's Buffy?" he asked, though Xander could see he already knew the answer.

Taking a deep breath, Xander responded. "We have a problem."

"I don't like the sound of that," Jesse commented worriedly.

Xander bit off a sharp reply to his friend's inane observation. It wouldn't do to have them snapping at each other. "She's been possessed." The others gasped in surprise, and he gave them a summary of the abortive fight and Buffy's escape.

"Why didn't she attack you?" Giles questioned.

Xander answered, a little more bluntly than he wanted, "She wasn't hungry."

"H-H-Hungry?" Willow stammered, fearfully.

"She would've _ate_ you!?" Amy asked, shocked and disgusted.

"Yeah," Xander replied rather sheepishly. "I mean, maybe. You've gotta remember, this hyena spirit isn't necessarily evil. It's an animal. And animals only kill for food."

"Uh huh. Not evil. Right. We'll just use that defense at Buffy's trial after she's gone all 'Jeffrey Dahmer' on the population of Sunnydale!" Jesse retorted.

"So, what do we do?" Oz asked for everyone.

Giles took charge. "There's nothing we can do for Buffy a-at the moment. We-we need to find a way to-to-to purge this spirit from her without having another body to deposit it in. And for that, we need to return to the library and research."

Typical Giles solution. 'Let's look it up!' But he was right, Xander thought. With the zookeeper dead, there was no one they could dump the hyena spirit into. So they had to find a different way to fix this.

"Giles is right," Xander agreed. He glanced at his watch. Five after nine. The night was still young... "You guys go do the book-learning thing. I'll find Buffy."

"Uh, Xander," Jesse said. "How do I put this delicately ... um, I can't. You wouldn't last five seconds against evil-Slayer-girl."

"She's not-" Xander snapped, but cut himself off and sighed. Frowning, he went on. "I know I can't." The frown turned into a scowl as a plan formed in his head. "But I know someone who can." And with that, Xander turned away from his friends and started walking to the partially open gate.

He wouldn't need any transportation. Angel's apartment building was only a few blocks away.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_9:25 PM_

_Outside Angel's Apartment_

  
  


__A chill went up Xander's spine as he opened the rickety door to the apartment building. He'd only come here once before and he didn't have many fond memories of that night. In fact, it was a night he had tried mightily to forget.

He walked into the building, past rows of mail boxes on the left wall. Idly, Xander wondered what mail Angel could possibly get. For some reason, the idea of the vampire paying utility bills or leafing through offers from Publishers' Sweepstakes seemed out of whack with his whole 'creature of the night' persona.

The old staircase creaked under his weight as Xander jogged up the steps. Reaching the second floor, he had to walk about thirty feet and around a couple corners to find Apt. 259. He banged loudly on the door a few times and stepped back.

Half a minute later, Xander stepped forward to knock again, but was startled when the door suddenly opened. Geez, even at home he does the whole stealth thing. I shoulda been able to hear him coming or something

Upon seeing his visitor, Angel blinked in surprise. Xander felt his usual sarcastic smile growing on his face. The one he reserved solely for his encounters with the souled vampire. He wiped it off as soon as he realized it was there. This was not the time for joking around.

With a serious expression on his face, Xander asked, "Can I come in?"

Apparently picking up on Xander's mood, Angel simply nodded and swung the door open fully and stepped to the side. The young man entered.

"Nice place you got here, Angel." It was too hard to resist. He _had_ to make a minor crack about the sorry state of Angel's living accommodations. It matched the vampire's personality to a T. Drab furniture. Boarded-up windows. Weapons hung on the wall with great care. A couple old-looking paintings being the only amenities.

"What do you want, Xander?" Angel asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Xander stopped his survey of the room and turned to the vampire. "We've got trouble. Or rather, Buffy's in trouble."

Not many things could elicit a reaction from Angel, but using Buffy's name was one of them. Especially when followed up with 'is in danger'. "What happened?" he asked quickly, a hint of worry in his voice.

"She's possessed," Xander explained simply.

"By what?"

"A hyena."

"A - what!?"

"A hyena." Xander insisted.

Angel paused for several seconds as he wrapped his mind around that one. "So ... what's that mean?"

"Basically? Eventually she'll start killing and eating people."

"... Eating."

"Yeah," Xander confirmed. Angel was still processing that information when Xander broke into his thoughts. "Look, I've got the rest of the gang off doing research on how to get her unpossessed. I need your help because we might need to, uh, subdue Buffy when the time comes. And last time I checked, you're the only good guy in town who can take on a Slayer and not die."

Ever a man of few words, Angel merely nodded and grabbed his leather jacket from off a coat rack. "Let's go." And so they went.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_10:50 PM_

_Streets of Sunnydale_

  
  


Angel and Xander walked in silence. They'd split up after leaving Angel's apartment, but when they couldn't locate Buffy, they met up at a prearranged intersection to search together. There was strength in numbers and strength would be something they'd need to face a Slayer.

But still, she was nowhere to be found. Whether that was good or bad was a toss up, Angel thought. At least she wasn't out hunting people. On the other hand, every minute she remained missing the spirit took greater control over her body. Or so Xander had explained. Angel suspected Xander knew more about this 'hyena spirit' than he admitted. He had been unusually succinct in his telling of how events had unfolded in his time. Not that Angel was going to call Xander on his suspicions. He hadn't known the young man that long, but he knew one thing about him. Xander wouldn't do anything or withhold any information if it endangered Buffy.

And that fact was making Angel insanely jealous. It was an emotion completely foreign to him. He hadn't even known what it was at first. It had first manifested itself the night The Three attacked Xander and Buffy had shown such overwhelming concern for his safety. It was like a weight had been dropped on his chest and was squeezing his heart. Angel felt it every time he saw the two of them kiss, while he silently kept watch over Buffy in the shadows. The feeling was only strengthened by the knowledge that Xander felt the same way about Buffy that he did. He loved her. And Buffy had chosen _him_.

Get over yourself, Angel he thought. Angel preferred to think of himself in the third person. It was a way to distance himself from his bloodthirsty alter-ego. At least in his own mind. What woman in their right mind would show any interest in someone who drinks blood and has a hundred fifty year track record of murder and mayhem?

"Angel, where'd you go?"

Angel was startled out of his internal musing. Xander was talking to him. He could make out sounds halfway across town with his supernatural hearing and yet his brooding kept him from hearing someone right next to it. Snap out of it, man. You've got a job to do right now

"Yeah?" Angel answered quickly.

"I said," Xander repeated slowly. "I need to tell you some stuff."

Angel nodded for him to go on.

"Right. First of all, this is information meant only for you, so don't go spreading it around."

Angel realized what Xander was getting at. He was talking about his mission. "All right."

Xander stopped talking and they walked on for a few more meters. "It's about your soul." He paused again. "It's not permanent."

Angel felt like he'd been kicked in the gut. In much of his century of existence with his soul, his greatest fear had been that the demon would overpower his newly acquired conscience and he would start killing again. He stopped moving and turned on Xander. "What!?"

Meeting the vampire's confused glare, Xander stopped and explained. "The gypsies. They put an escape clause in that curse of yours. If you ever experience a 'moment of perfect happiness', the spell breaks and the soul leaves your body again."

"And this ... happened?" Xander nodded. "How?" Angel asked, even as he was considering it himself. 'Perfect happiness'? He hadn't felt anything remotely resembling joy since before he was turned. Apart from the exhilaration of a kill, which didn't really count, since he hadn't had a soul then. In fact the only bright spot in his life was...

"Buffy," Angel said softly before Xander could answer. When Xander didn't contradict him, he went on. "You mean, she and I..." he trailed off, not wanting to raise his hopes.

"Yeah," Xander said, a trace of bitterness in his tone. "But don't get your hopes up for Buffy/Angel: the sequel. She's not gonna see you that way this time. Cuz now, she knows who you are and it's strictly business. The way it was _supposed_ to be."

Angel felt a surge of anger rush through him. This little piss-ant had ruined his chance with the woman he loved!? Just so that he could have her himself!? The bastard! He hadn't been this enraged in years. Angel felt the demon rise to the fore and saw Xander take a step back in surprise. A moment later, the souled vampire growled and leapt at him, arms outstretched.

He hadn't expected much resistance from Xander. He was just a kid, after all. So when Xander sidestepped the lunge and used Angel's momentum to smash him face first into a wall, the vampire was damn surprised. He was even more so when after bouncing back, Angel had his legs kicked out from under him, and the next thing he knew he was looking up at Xander's angry face.

"You ... dumbass!!" he yelled. "Didn't you hear a word I said!? If you and her got together, you'd _lose_ your soul! And Buffy wouldn't be able to kill you because she'd be holding out for some tiny, minuscule hope against hope that 'her Angel'," Xander quoted derisively, "could be brought back." He snorted and scowled down at Angel. "If I had my way, I'd just stake you and be done with it. But, someone up there likes you. Literally. Keeping you from losing your soul is one of the big jobs I've got on this little jaunt through time. And if I fail, _I_ pay the price and God knows how many people will die. So I don't give the tiniest damn if _you_ feel gypped just cuz you don't get your dream girl. I lived with it, and so can you."

It wasn't really a speech meant to calm Angel down, and in fact, Xander probably didn't care. But, despite whatever Xander had been trying to accomplish, it did bring the souled vampire back down to earth. Reminders of the havoc Angelus had wrought on the world always served to sober Angel up.

"Now, get off your ass. We've got work to do." Without another word and not waiting for Angel to get up, Xander marched off into the night, his worried state restored after his angry outburst.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_March 5, 1997_

_6:30 AM_

_An abandoned warehouse on 3rd Street_

  
  


__She awoke a few minutes before sunrise. Which was really strange. She had been a 'late to bed, late to rise' type of person since she'd moved to this town. It was like she had some sort of internal alarm clock now that sent out its irritating beeps so that she could rise with the sun. Maybe it was another side-effect of the possession.

Possession isn't a good way to describe this Buffy thought. 'Possession' implies something bad's taking over. But I feel great!

And she did. She'd never felt so strong, and in a Slayer, that's saying something. Buffy felt like she could do anything. Jump the highest mountain, swim the farthest sea. And the strength didn't stop there. She was also seeing things in a new light, in a way that was much simpler than she used to.

Take last night for example. Before they had left for the zoo, she and the gang had been debating what to do with the zookeeper once they stopped him. They'd gone on and on for three quarters of an hour about how to deal with him and keep him from doing his evil deeds. The solution was so simple that it went over all their heads. Kill 'em. He was a bad guy, trying to get all-powerful-y, so he needed to be stopped. Ergo, kill 'em. A nice, black and white solution. No annoying grey cluttering up the issue.

Yes, things were very clear now. It was just like that bird-guy said. What was his name? Derwood, Dorwin ... something like that. Natural selection. Survival of the fittest. The strong thrive while the weak go the way of the dinosaurs. And Buffy knew she was thriving now.

Standing up, Buffy stretched and worked out the kinks and stresses in her joints. Something in her argued that you didn't need a comfy bed to sleep well, but her human body seemed to disagree. Normally, she'd be thinking about jumping in the shower and getting a quick bite to eat right now before heading off to school. Buffy didn't have any of those things planned today. First off, her 'temporary residence' didn't have showers. It would have been a little weird if an abandoned warehouse did have one. Secondly, she was still quite full from her late night snack, the carcass of which was rotting in some corner of the warehouse. Buffy never thought that raw meat could be so ... appetizing. And lastly, besides her overwhelming dislike for school, there was also the problem of her 'friends' being there.

Buffy frowned and sighed. The gang was no doubt trying to find a way to reverse her 'possession', in the belief that that was what she wanted. And she couldn't very well go tell them not to because they'd assume she was under some sort of hyena mind control. But she wasn't. She really wasn't. And so she'd have to stop them.

That was something she didn't want to do. They were like her, after all - strong. Everyone else in Sunnydale ignored the truth about vampires and the supernatural because they were weak-willed. But the gang ... Giles was strong, in a bookish, stuttery way. Jesse's strength was in his sense of humor and being able to laugh anything off. Amy, well, she helped them take care of her mother even though she was terrified out of her mind. And Xander-

Ooooh, Xander Buffy felt her insides melting at the thought of her boyfriend. _He_ was the strongest person, aside from herself, that she knew. He'd already saved her life twice, maybe more than that. He, a normal guy fighting evil, had survived against everything the Hellmouth had spit out or sucked in for five years. That was longer than all but the best Slayers. It was therefore fitting that the two strongest people in town were together.

Buffy had run away from him last night, but not out of fear of being captured or depossessed. No, she'd been scared by her own thoughts. Thoughts usually relegated to the back of her mind because of their 'inappropriateness' had gained her undivided attention last night. Her rational mind had protested the lewd suggestions, pointing out that they'd only been seeing each other a month. And so she had left the building before she lost her resolve.

Now, though, Buffy couldn't see why she had been so squeamish. She and Xander were meant to be. It was so obvious. They were the strongest, and would raise the strongest offspring. Us not mating would be, like, a crime against nature Buffy resolved to find her destined mate, as she now thought of him, soon and sort things out.

Something was nagging at the back of her mind, though. There was something else she needed to do. Something to do with...

Buffy scowled to herself. Willow. She had forgotten about her when she was thinking about the gang. It was just as well. She didn't belong. Willow was the weak one. She'd loved Xander for years and been too afraid to tell him about it. And she was useless when it came to helping with slaying.

But there was something else about Willow besides her sudden dislike for the girl that Buffy was trying to put her finger on.

Suddenly, she realized what it was.

Slowly, a smile spread across her face. "Well, looks like I'll have something to do today, after all."

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_7:00 AM_

_Harris Residence_

  
  


"Goooood morning, beautiful Sunnydale! It's four, five, six, _seven_ AM on what promises to be another-" The QX 95.6 announcer was cut off as Xander brought his fist down on his bedside radio/alarm. He was not in the mood for DJ Joe's Morning Show today. Besides the fact that his girlfriend was missing with the possibility that she'd become a murderer last night, there was also the lack of sleep searching for her until 4 in the morning had left him with.

Xander groaned and sat up in his bed, before he lost his will to get up and fell back into blessed slumber. He and Angel had not found anything good last night. The vampire's senses had picked up on a trail of blood spots leading away from the zoo, but they had lost the scent after a few hundred meters. Angel didn't know what kind of blood it was, but said it could have been human. Xander was surprised he'd gotten any sleep, with that thought on his mind.

After mindlessly showering and dressing, Xander made his way downstairs, where breakfast was not waiting for him. Like usual. The Hellmouth would freeze over before his mother lifted a finger to prepare food for her family. Instead, he found his mother sitting in the dining room reading the newspaper, with the radio on in the background. His father was stilling snoring in the living room, probably passed out there from the night before.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, the kitchen phone started to ring. His mother didn't move from her chair. She didn't even flinch, in fact. Sighing, Xander walked by her and picked up the phone as he made his way to the cupboard and its sparse supply of food. "Hello?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, followed by a woman's worried voice. "Xander?"

Xander immediately recognized it. "Mrs. Summers?"

"Yes," Another pause, and then Buffy's mother came right to the point. "Did Buffy stay with you last night?"

Xander grimaced. There was no good way to answer that question. Say yes and the next question would be "And what were you doing?" Say no and you'll worry her even more. Not that she shouldn't be worried. Her daughter was running around town with a murderous spirit in her body. That was pretty good cause to worry. But Xander couldn't very well say that. He had talked to Buffy about that issue. She insisted that she didn't want to tell her mom about her destiny yet. And what the Slayer wants...

Trying to sound casual, and feeling like the devil incarnate as he did, Xander replied. "No. I haven't seen her since school ended yesterday. Why," he forced a concerned tone into his voice. "Didn't she come home?"

"No!" Joyce said, sounding almost frantic. "I-I tried Willow's house as well and, and I called the police but they said she couldn't be declared missing until she's been gone for twenty four hours and, I mean, it's-"

Xander stopped listening to Joyce's anxiety-ridden babbling when he heard the words 'Sunnydale Zoo' on the kitchen radio. He tried to listen to Joyce with one ear while concentrating on the news announcer's report.

"-reported a break in last night. Security guards found an entrance to the zoo broken down, and further investigation revealed the mangled body of one of the zoo's maintenance personnel in the hyena feeding pit. Police on the scene said that they were considering foul play in their investigation. In a possibly connected incident, zoo officials said that one of Sunnydale Zoo's rare addax antelopes has gone missing from its holding pen. Contacted for comment on the disappearance, zoo administrator Zackery..."

An antelope? That means... Xander breathed a sigh of relief. The blood he and Angel had found must have been from the antelope. Not a person, as they had feared. Then a disturbing thought crossed his mind. Buffy ate an antelope. Oh, God, I'm gonna be sick Xander clutched at his stomach while still holding the phone to his ear. He was suddenly glad he hadn't eaten yet.

"Xander!" Joyce's loud voice in his ear brought him back to reality and away from his unpleasant Buffy-eating-animals thoughts.

Without missing a beat, Xander tried to hearten Joyce. "Don't worry, Mrs. Summers. I'm gonna go look for her. All day if I need to. She'll be back in time for supper, I promise," he concluded assuredly, hoping his confidence was well-founded.

After he had gotten Joyce to hang up, Xander quickly ate a bowl of cereal and went back up to his room. He collapsed back onto his bed and entwined his hands behind his head, trying to formulate a plan. Eventually, he decided to search his own memory for what his possession had been like, and use that to predict what Buffy would do next.

Xander was having more trouble than he thought he would in that department. His memories of his 'hyena experience' were oddly fuzzy. Maybe I really did forget it after a while. This is the Hellmouth after all. A girl became invisible because she was ignored, maybe memories can be forgotten if you try hard enough Xander shook his head. The crazy thing was that that was actually a feasible theory. Stranger things had happened in Sunnydale.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Xander tried harder to remember.

I went into the hyena house to save some meek kid, don't remember his name, from a bunch of bullies led by ... Kyle. Kyle was the bully's name. Then ... I stood up to him, the hyenas growled and we turned to look at them, and then...

"Uhhh!" he grunted in frustration, pulling at his hair. He couldn't remember. After the spirit had jumped into his body, his memory was practically blank. "C'mon, think hard, retard," Xander muttered to himself. Closing his eyes and breathing slowly, he tried to concentrate.

Whatever he'd been inadvertently doing, it worked. A flood of images and feelings assaulted Xander as whatever Hellmouth-inspired mojo that held them back was broken.

The nature of the possession wasn't like anything Xander had read about in Giles' books. It wasn't like his only other possession experience on Halloween, when some forgotten soldier had taken over his body and he was just a spectator. The hyena spirit brought out innate characteristics buried deeply in his subconscious and magnified them. It was a gradual process that made him more animalistic as time went on and the spirit rooted itself more and more deeply in his soul. Eventually, he wasn't Xander Harris anymore, he was a hyena in a human body.

Xander wondered why things were different with Buffy. She was eating raw flesh already. He hadn't sunk that low until a day after he'd been possessed. He pushed the thought aside. He'd talk to Giles about it later.

What did I do after I ate ... the pig? Xander grimaced. After the hyena had been transpossessed out of him, he'd spent a good hour brushing his teeth and gurgling Listerine. He suspected Buffy was going to freak out even worse after she realized she snacked on an antelope.

Let's see, after I offed Sunnydale High's football mascot, I went looking for...

Xander bolted upright in his bed at the realization.

Angel. He'd planned to go after Deadboy and put the hurt on him. Why?

He was a rival, Xander remembered. A rival for his ... chosen mate. The only problem had been that he didn't have a clue where the vampire had lived at the time. So he had instead given up after a short time and gone off in search of Buffy, his mate.

Does Buffy see me as her mate? Xander thought back to the seductive smile she had given him the night before prior to her running off. It was certainly possible. He was her boyfriend, after all. In the back of his mind, he was flattered. Way, way back in his mind. The rest of his brain was focused on the fact that Buffy might be out to seriously injure anyone who could possibly steal his affections. One name flashed through his mind and Xander jumped to his feet.

"Willow!"

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_8:00 AM_

_Outside the Rosenberg Residence_

  
  


"Have a good day at school, dear," Sheila Rosenberg called absently after Willow as her daughter stepped out their front door.

"Bye, mom," Willow replied just as unenthusiastically as she heaved her book bag over her shoulder. She was surprised her mother had even noticed her this morning. Normally when she was engrossed in some psychiatric journal, as she was now, a nuclear blast would have been hard pressed to tear her attention away from it.

Willow squinted as she looked across the street, trying to see past the glare of the newly rising sun. As usual, there was little activity in town during her walk to school. Eight o'clock was too early for most students to head off to school, and the nine-to-fivers were probably sitting down for their omelletes or burnt toast or cereal right about now. But Willow had always been a little ahead of the curve.

The little red head was even more anxious to get to school today than was the norm for her. Giles had all but forced her to go home last night when she'd insisted on staying at the library into the wee hours of the morning researching the animal spirit that had possessed Buffy. Willow's desire to help her sprang partly from concern for one of her best friends and partly from fear. She and Buffy had been getting along better since the talk she'd had with Xander outside the Bronze, but there was still some tension between them over the issue of Xander. Willow was worried what a homicidal Buffy would do about their little quarrel.

Willow was right to be worried.

As she walked past a thicket of tall bushes and climbing vines obscuring a fence three houses down from hers, Willow was grabbed from behind and shoved back against the six foot high fence. Her squeak of shock turned into a cry of pain as a protruding nail pierced her shoulder and she dropped her bag. Willow stared with wide-eyed surprise and rapidly mounting fear at her attacker.

Buffy Summers was glaring at her with unconcealed malice and hatred in her eyes. A sardonic smile crossed the Slayer's face. "Hey Wills. How's tricks?"

  
  


End XI


	6. A Willing Victim?

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.

  
  


**__**Chapter XII - A Willing Victim?

  
  


_March 6, 1997_

_8:05 AM_

_A block from the Rosenberg Residence_

  
  


Buffy had never given much thought to the phrase 'animals can smell fear'. She'd been a city girl all her life and the fiercest creature she'd encountered (pre-Slayer, of course) was her former neighbor's temperamental tabby cat that had chowed down on a pet canary Buffy had had when she was nine. Not very terror-inspiring. And how could you 'smell' fear anyway? Fear was an emotion, an intangible feeling often invoked but poorly described. You can't detect something abstract, no matter how sensitive the sniffer.

But that was wrong, Buffy knew now. Or partly wrong, anyway. 'The smell of fear' was merely the stench someone emits when they are afraid. Sort of a sickly sweet odor, caused by sweating without exertion. Perspiration created by that feeling of dread people called fear.

And the little mouse before her had fear rolling off her in waves. It was ... satisfying. Like she'd fulfilled some biological imperative to instill terror in those beings below her. Of which there were many.

The mouse, known sometimes as Willow, squeaked. "B-B-Buffy!?"

"Y-Y-Yes?" Buffy asked tauntingly.

Willow's eyes were like saucers as she swallowed convulsively. She tried to force a smile onto her face. "How's that h-hyena thing working out for ya?"

Buffy smirked menacingly at the girl, removing all traces of a grin from her face. "Super, Wills. Just great. I've really learned a lot. Want me to teach you a bit?" Showing that the question was rhetorical, Buffy continued without pause. "How about ... the relationship between predator ... and prey?"

Mmmm The scent was getting stronger. Willow's breathing was starting to get erratic as well.

"Oh, n-no, no, no. Y-You don't want t-to e-e-e-eat me. I'm, I'm not good for you! Look at me, I'm l-like skin and bones! All stringy and-and-and not tender. Ooh! I have eggs like, everyday, so I must be high in bad cholesterol-"

Buffy tuned her pathetic babbling out when she noticed Willow inching ever so slowly toward the sidewalk. A good, early morning chase would be nice, but this little bug wasn't worth the effort. Instead, Buffy stepped forward to grab her. When Willow saw this, she tried to make a break for it, but her effort was futile. Buffy shot her arm out and seized Willow by her forearm, squeezing tightly. "Relax, Willow," she said with a smile. "I'm not gonna make you into an entree. I've already eaten today," she announced casually with a shrug of her shoulders.

That did little to reassure the terrified girl she held at arm's length. She was wincing from the pressure being applied to her arm. "Oh, oh g-good." Her expression then changed to one of horror. "No, wait. Not good. Y-Y-You 'already ate'?"

Buffy ignored the pointless question and finished her statement. "I'm just going to kill you until you stay away from _my_ Xander. But I figure it'll only take the one time."

If Willow's eyes were saucers before, they were full-sized dinner plates now. "K-k-kill me!?" Then she seemed to catch up to Buffy's reasoning. "Xander!? B-But I'm all right with you guys! See, 'OK Willow'?" There was a hint of desperation in her voice now. "I'm l-like totally over him. A-A-And Xander told me he d-didn't want me, cuz-cuz he loved _you_!"

For a moment, Buffy felt her heart jump slightly at Willow's words. Her grip loosened slightly on her arm and Willow tried to pull away from her. That was a mistake. Instinct came flooding back and convinced her that Willow was grasping at straws to avoid her wrath. Her completely justified wrath.

Buffy growled and roughly shoved Willow back against the fence, this time holding her there by the shoulders as she leaned into the girl. Willow seemed to bite back a scream, but her mouth fell open and her eyes closed in pain. The coppery smell of blood reached Buffy's nostrils, though she couldn't see where Willow was wounded. She fought back the bloodlustful urge to rip the injured girl apart right here and now. This wasn't just a random kill. Willow was a rival, weak though she was. This was a victory to be savored.

Buffy glared with narrowed eyes at her squirming captive. "You're a terrible liar, Willow. I _know_ you still love him. You don't just turn that on and off like a light switch. I _know_ you want to take him from me," she smiled unpleasantly. "It must just kill you that he won't give you the time of day while I've got a lifetime membership at 'Xander-land'." She finished her derision in a light tone.

Her gibes were having the desired affect on Willow. Her face fell visibly and her eyes started brimming over with tears, though whether it was from the taunts or the pressure Buffy was continually applying to her shoulders was up for grabs. Her body seemed to deflate in the Slayer's grasp. "Buffy, please," she almost whimpered.

Buffy smiled. She'd won. She'd ripped Willow's heart out and stomped it into the ground. Time to end this. She snaked her right hand toward Willow's neck and-

A new, familiar scent invaded Buffy's senses. One that brought out a different type of lustfulness in her. A scent she had memorized long before her present condition had enhanced her perceptions of her senses. Wrapping her hand tightly around Willow's neck to hold her in place, Buffy turned her head to witness the newcomer's approach. He ran into view right beside them as he cleared the fence and almost tripped over his feet at the scene he had come upon.

A seductive smile graced her face as she drawled out in a honey-laced voice, "Good morning, Xander."

  
  


I'm gonna need a tetanus shot Willow thought irrelevantly. Buffy was pushing her right onto that nail in the fence and it had to be buried a half an inch into her flesh just below her shoulder blade. It hurt, and the pain increased as Buffy suddenly grabbed her by the throat and squeezed.

Willow heard Buffy say something and saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She felt her heart burst in relief when she recognized Xander. Xander's here! He'll save me! He'll ... get killed in the process. Run, Xander, run!

She tried to vocalize her thoughts but they came out as a rasp, as Buffy's iron grip on her throat made talking difficult. Breathing, as well. She was already starting to feel light-headed.

Willow stared wide-eyed at Xander as he stood there for a moment catching his breath. He must have run all the way here Willow thought with a strange mixture of happiness and guilt. He's going to get hurt cuz of me

What he did next surprised her and beat the remnants of her heart into the earth with a sledgehammer. He looked away from Willow and grinned lopsidedly at Buffy. "Morning Buff. And what are you up to this fine day?"

Willow was stunned. Xander was talking like he'd found his girlfriend eating a bagel. Not strangling his best friend. Then a terrible thought struck Willow. Is he...

He's possessed too! It all fit. He and Buffy had gone into the Hyena House together. Xander came out saying Buffy was possessed, then ran off to 'find' her. She hadn't heard from him since. Willow felt fresh tears coming to her eyes. She was doomed. Two of her best friends were going to kill her.

Buffy looked a little suspicious at Xander's lighthearted greeting. Nonchalantly, she shrugged. "Nothing much. Getting some fresh air, quick jog around the block, kill Willow. Same ol', same ol'."

Xander got an expression on his face that was partly amused and partly confused. "Her?" He asked incredulously, waving his hand at Willow. "Why?"

Buffy looked at him, a bit perturbed. "Why not? I'm just, y'know, throwing out the deadwood."

"Oh, I'm with you there, it's just..." he gestured with his hands, as though trying to make some non-existent point. "Well, Buffy the Vampire Slayer versus Willow the useless computer nerd? Hardly a contest." He waved his hand dismissively.

Willow hadn't thought the misery of the last few minutes could be topped but that statement proved her wrong. The tears streaked her face and she barely noticed that her breaths were coming ever shallower under Buffy's grasp...

Buffy sighed, aggravated. "That's not the point, Xand. She's trying to take you from me."

Xander laughed. A laugh of disbelief and maliciousness. "Willow!? Take me from you? What could she possibly offer that you don't have in spades?" He took a step closer to her. "Now let the mouse scurry back to her hole in the wall and you and I'll go do something a little more ... enjoyable." He smirked as he said the last in a gruff voice.

He reached up and traced her cheekbone gently with his finger. Willow felt the grip on her neck loosen a bit.

Buffy licked her lips and she glared intensely back up at Xander. "And just what did you have in mind?" she asked innocently.

Xander didn't answer, just pulled her roughly to him and descended on her lips, kissing Buffy savagely. An instant later, Buffy was returning it, just as fiercely. In the process, her hand left Willow's throat. She reflexively sucked in a long breath of oxygen she'd been in too much pain to realize she'd needed. She didn't care. Her eyes were stuck watching the decadent sight of Buffy and Xander mauling each others' mouths and groping one another. Willow felt her breakfast starting to come back up. She was witnessing her worst nightmare.

When the kissing duo finally broke apart, they stared at each other with desire-filled gazes. "So," Xander grinned lecherously at her. "What do you want to do _now_, Buffy?"

Her response was a frustrated and salacious growl as she gripped him tighter.

Xander leered at his girlfriend. "Thought so. What say we head on over to the 'Xander House of Love' and get down to some Barry White. 'Can't Get Enough' is responsible for most of the sex in the late 70s and 80s, y'know."

Willow noticed that Buffy's regular laugh was gone, replaced with a high-pitched, almost-yelping cry. It must have been an effect of the possession. But ... Xander was laughing normally. Well, normally in a mean way. What's going on here? She got her answer a moment later.

Xander wrapped his arm around Buffy's shoulder and started to guide her to the sidewalk. When he stood between his girlfriend and Willow, he shot his life-long friend a quick glance. A glance that was so full of pain and regret that Willow nearly gasped. Then she figured it out.

He was faking it! she thought with a great deal of relief. He couldn't physically stop Buffy from hurting me so he had to distract her Willow suddenly felt angry at being jerked around like that, but quickly shook it off. Better to be alive and able to be angry than dead and feeling nothing.

Her ping-ponging emotions then bounced back to fear, this time for Xander. He'd taken the heat off her, only to bring potential trouble to himself. And right now he was taking a sex-crazed Slayer home to ... He wouldn't, would he? No, Xander wouldn't take advantage of Buffy like that. But what if she doesn't stop and ... Help! I need to get help! Willow thought frantically as she slowly poked her head around the fence.

Buffy and Xander were a block and a half away. Xander seemed to be setting a slow pace for them. It occurred to her that he was trying to delay the inevitable so that she could call in the cavalry. Giles! He'll know what to do! And with that less-than-perfect plan, Willow started running in the opposite direction from her friends, toward the school and some much-needed back-up.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_8:45 AM_

_Harris Residence_

  
  


Xander's parents were gone. His mother must've run out of her kind of bread or something and decided to take one of her rare trips to the supermarket. And he'd seen his father driving out of the garage on his way to his latest menial job that he'd be fired from in a few weeks. Xander couldn't decide whether that was good or bad. On the plus side, his parents were now out of the line of Buffy's fire. On the bad side, he was now alone in a building with an extremely horny Slayer.

That's not a bad side an evil little voice in his head claimed. You know you want this

Oh, God this was a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad, bad! Resisting Buffy has never been one of my strong suits The idea had popped into his head while he'd been sprinting to Willow's place. He'd remembered the hyena's bull-headed single-mindedness. After a while, instinct had overridden his conscious thoughts. Getting Buffy's mind on a little mating fun would get it off hurting Willow.

But a feeling of dread had been seeping into his gut during the walk home. Walking as slowly as Buffy allowed them to,but not as slow as Xander wanted. He needed to kill some time to allow Giles and Willow and the others to get their acts in gear. Assuming that Willow had caught that last look of remorse he'd sent her. If she hadn't, then he was well and truly screwed. In more ways than one.

As soon as they walked in the door and confirmed that no one was home, his possessed girlfriend latched her lips onto his, kissing him so ferociously that his bottom lip split. The blood only seemed to send her into even more of a frenzy, much like a shark that detected blood in the water. A part of him wondered why her breath was so fresh the morning after she'd eaten raw flesh. Another part was wondering why the other part was focusing on that when he should be trying to keep this situation from getting out of hand.

It took every ounce of strength to push Buffy off him. A bit too much strength, as it turned out. She stumbled back and fell hard on the floor. Oops. And now she's going to kill me. Oh, joy Xander braced himself for an irate Slayer, but she didn't immediately jump up and proceed to throttle him. Instead, she just propped herself up with her forearms behind her back and let a sultry smile grow on her face. She stared up at him through a few errant strands of blond hair that had fallen in her eyes. Xander could not believe how sexy she made that pose look.

"Wanna play rough, huh?" Buffy asked teasingly. Before Xander could react, she was on her feet and pressed against him, kissing his daylights out again. Then she kicked his legs out from under him so that they landed on floor with a loud bang. With Buffy on top. "Two can play at that game," she said between fevered kisses.

Xander's reasoning and logic were starting to desert him. That sex-crazed little voice in his head was getting louder as the hormones coursed through his veins. Come on ... like Jordan says, just do it! You haven't gotten any since Anya left! Almost six months ago! And this is Buffy. _Buffy_. You've been wondering what she'd be like for ages. Here's your chance!

NO! Reason tried to reassert itself. If you do this, she'll never forgive you!

Of course she will! Horny Xander retorted. She'll be feeling so guilty over all the stuff she's done in the last twelve hours that you boinkin' her will seem like small potatoes

It'll-it'll screw things up between you and Buffy Logic was beginning to fade...

Time. He needed to play for time. Well, that was something he could do. He'd perfected the art of foreplay during his nearly two years with Anya. Their record was almost half an hour before they got down to it. That should be more than enough time for the gang to get to his place with some semblance of a plan. Also, it was a way to settle his little internal war for the time being. A compromise between 'hands off' and 'let's get it on tonight.'

Deftly, Xander grabbed Buffy's arms and rolled them over, pinning her arms above her head. As if she couldn't break free in a microsecond. But she just smirked at his controlling maneuver. Buffy's hair was tousled from his hand combing through it. Her face was flushed almost red and she was breathing hard and fast. And her eyes... Her eyes were feral with unleashed passion. If 'in heat' ever described a human being, it was Buffy right now.

I don't think she's going to give me thirty minutes. I'll be lucky to extend this five minutes before she rips my clothes off The fact that that was troubling him less and less as he thought about it was a dangerous sign.

"C'mon, Xand, Mr. 'tornado-in-the-sack'. Rock me like a hurricane," she dared him.

Control. Control. Stop thinking about how much you want to do that and focus!! Xander frenetically tried to get his libido in check. He managed to get them standing upright, much to Buffy's dismay. He pulled her into another deep kiss. Kissing is good, it's OK. Even if she's trying to suck my tongue down her throat Which she was.

Locked in their embrace, Xander started shuffling them toward the living room and its couch. For whatever reason, his pheromone-soaked brain thought that was a better place for ... whatever he'd been thinking about a second ago. He had honestly forgotten. He was reminded when Buffy simplified their relocation by jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist. It also gave her more leverage to make her kissing and lip-sucking more insistent. Oh, yeah. Seduce Buffy, but not too much

Good luck with that that annoying pro-sex voice in his head said sarcastically.

Trying to keep your balance while light-headed and having a girl clinging to you is not easy. Xander wobbled and lurched around the living room until he bumped into the end table right beside the chesterfield, knocking over a ratty lamp perched there. Muttering a curse into his girlfriend's mouth, still firmly attached to his, Xander fell onto the couch, Buffy-first, crushing her between himself and the old, beer-stained cushions. Neither noticed or cared if there was any stench there today. They were too wrapped up in themselves. Literally.

Buffy had had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck during their little trip. Now, freed of the need to hold onto him, her hands were heading south, to dangerous territory. There was no way he could deny he was excited. The proof was poking her in the stomach. A wave of panic arose in him when she felt her small hands trying to separate them in the pelvic region, so that she could get at his zipper.

"Whoa! Buff! Goin' right to main course, huh?" It amazed him that his mind was still capable of sex metaphors. He reached down to secure her wrists with his own hands.

In a voice totally devoid of teasing and through clenched teeth, she growled out between panting breaths, "Now, Xander. I ... want ... you ... NOW!"

Trying to keep his cool in the face of Buffy's almost overwhelming desire, Xander shook his head slowly. "Tsk, tsk, Buffy. I have some pre-game festivities planned before the main event." He leaned down to kiss and nibble at her neck.

Xander tried everything he could think of to prolong the 'festivities'. Slowly nipping at one side of her neck, then kissing his way across her face to repeat on the other side. A little nibble at her earlobe every now and then. Rubbing his hands up and down Buffy's body, fighting off the urge to do a little fondling in her chest area. That was a bit further than he thought she would want to go. At least in her right mind. Right now, he could probably do anything he wanted to her and she'd cheer him on...

Stop it! You're not doing it so don't think it! Think about baseball. Yeah, baseball. Pitching ... catching ... hey! I think the Dodgers still have Piazza now. Wonder if I can stop them from trading him?

His distracting thoughts were broken off when Buffy let out a pent-up moan and took matters into her own hands. Unhooking her legs from around his waist, she flipped Xander off her so that he landed on his back next to the couch. Then she rolled herself off the sofa and back onto Xander, in control once again. She positioned herself so that she was straddling his thighs. She growled/groaned at the contact between their clothing-covered sexes. He felt his pulse start to race even faster at the pleasure he was bringing her.

"Xander," Buffy started breathlessly. "What part of '_NOW_' didn't you understand?" Suddenly, she grabbed two handfuls of his sweater and with a mighty tug, ripped it in half straight down the middle. Quickly disposing of the shredded remnants, she ran her hands down his bare chest, her breaths coming even quicker now. A solid month of training and conditioning exercises had started to chisel out his junk-food softened body. He could tell that Buffy appreciated it.

Xander expected Buffy to go to his jeans next and was trying to summon up some last reserves of resistance. However, her hands instead slid up her own thighs and started toying with the hem of her shirt, the same tight black shirt she'd been wearing the night before. His surprise must have shown on his face, as she explained. "Tit for tat."

"Interesting choice of words," Xander found himself saying.

Where did that come from? he wondered. That's it. Game over. Buffy's not wearing a bra and when that shirt comes off, we're not going anywhere for the rest of the day. It won't be so bad. I mean, she's possessed, so what? It'll-

POP!

The sound of compressed air being explosively released broke through his haze. Neither he nor Buffy had heard the front door quietly open. It might have had something to do with the blood pounding in their ears. And they were too engrossed in themselves to see Oz come in, aim a tranquilizer gun at Buffy and fire.

Buffy emitted a sharp shriek as the dart struck her in the back. She snapped her head around and snarled at Oz before jumping to her feet to attack him. Fortunately for the musician, the dart's effects started to kick in before she was halfway across the room, and the Slayer didn't make it before slumping to the ground into unconsciousness.

Breathing a long sigh of relief, Xander thanked every God he knew (except for the Hellgods, naturally) that he'd convinced Giles to invest in a tranquilizer gun for their slaying work. Far too many of the threats they would face resided in the gray area of the bad-guy spectrum, and he hadn't bought one until Oz's lycanthropy had made it necessary. Xander almost laughed at that. How ironic that Oz was the one behind the gun now-

POP!

"OW!!" Xander cried as something hit his bare chest. His eyes snapped open to see Oz lowering the tranq gun again and a feathered dart sticking out of his chest. His eyes wide with surprise, he stared at Oz until his eyes started to feel heavy.

"Sorry," Oz shrugged. "Finger slipped."

As he drifted off into unconsciousness, Xander realized he had been right before.

This was a bad, bad, bad, bad idea

  
  


End XII


	7. Under Duress

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.

  
  
  


_**Chapter XIII - Under Duress**_

  
  
  


_March 6, 1997_

_8:55 AM_

_Outside the Harris Residence_

  
  
  


Oz liked to think of himself as a mild-mannered guy. God knows, it was definitely the persona he showed the people around him. And it was the way he had been for most of his life. When he was younger, bullies used to make fun of his insubstantial height, but he didn't let it get to him. You couldn't change stuff like that, so you just accept that some people are jerks and ignore them. Shrug off the shots life sends your way, roll with the punches, and continue on your way.

He had found that way of thinking was harder to maintain of late. It was getting more difficult to keep his emotions in check. That was the result of a lot of things. Learning about his hometown's dark side the hard way was foremost among them. Oz still had nightmares about that horrible night that Lori had died. He'd see everything in slow motion. The ugly creature's arm, with a sharp, serrated blade attached, slicing through the air in an almost graceful arc. His girlfriend screaming as she tried to jump back. The blade catching her flush in the throat, cutting through and leaving a messy and gaping wound. The thin stream of blood the creature's follow-through sent flying through the air, gleaming ruby red in the streetlight. Lori's scream degenerating into a gurgle as her hands pawed ineffectually at the laceration, her legs giving way and dropping to the ground like a ton of bricks. The pool of blood that quickly formed around her as she lay there. And Oz, not able to do anything but watch in horror.

Recently, though, Oz had been disturbed by a shift in his nightly horror-fests. Instead of witnessing Lori's death, someone else kept getting the sharp end of the blade. Willow. For some reason, those dreams shook him up even more than the recreations of actual events. He'd had to reluctantly admit to himself that his feelings for the shy redhead went farther than the friendships he'd been drawn into with the rest of the 'Scooby Gang'. It just seemed wrong, somehow. His girlfriend had only been dead for a few weeks and he'd already moved on? But it was the truth. Every time she'd smile that timid little smile of hers, he'd feel just a little bit happier. And she had a quiet beauty that was belied by her frumpy clothing and plain features. Yes, Oz had conceded, he was quite smitten with Willow Rosenberg.

And that was a problem, since Willow probably barely knew he existed. She still only had eyes for one Xander Harris. Xander who already _had_ a girlfriend that he all but flaunted in front of poor Willow. Well, maybe not flaunted, but they were just so sickeningly sweet together that they gave single people upset stomachs. And yet Willow continued to pine over him. It was frustrating for Oz to witness. He just hated seeing her keep beating herself over the head over a guy that would never give her what she wanted. And, irrationally, he blamed Xander for that. He knew he shouldn't, it wasn't Xander's fault how Willow felt, but his ever-present detached attitude was wavering, leaving his objectivity ... less than objective.

Oz had walked into the library this morning to find Giles grabbing the tranquilizer gun from under the circulation desk and Willow frantically pacing the floor in front of it, mumbling something about saving Xander. They had pretty much commandeered his van for the drive to Xander's place and Willow had reluctantly explained the situation. At first, Oz had been severely pissed off at what Xander had done to save his friend. Willow had said she understood why he did, though, so he'd calmed down (internally) a bit. It had saved her, after all.

"There!" Willow pointed to an average sized, two-story house on the right side of the street. "That's Xander's place."

Oz quickly pulled over to the curb and screeched to a halt in front of the indicated building. "His parents aren't home," Willow said. "Both their cars are gone." They sat there momentarily, unsure of how to proceed.

"I'll go in," Oz offered, picking up the tranquilizer gun resting between the passenger and driver's seat.

"No, no," Giles interceded, shaking his head. "Buffy is my Slayer, she's-she's my responsibility. I'll..." Giles trailed off as he watched Oz expertly handling the weapon. Work the bolt action to check the chamber. Shove a dart in there, close it up. Check the safety. Sight it on the mailbox on the front lawn. The musician stopped when he saw Willow and Giles looked at him oddly and with a little apprehension.

"Used to go hunting with the family," he explained. They nodded in understanding.

"Be careful," Willow warned. "Buffy's ... well, homicidal wouldn't be an exaggeration right now."

Oz smiled softly at her. "I'll be all right." He felt his heart warm when she marginally smiled back at him. Then her brows furrowed and she turned her head toward the house across from them.

"I hope Xander's OK..." she said in a quiet, concern-laden voice.

Oz felt a sting of jealousy again, but pushed it aside. An angry voice inside him tried to revive it. How can she be so afraid for him after what he just did to her!? He opened the driver's side door and hopped out, clutching the tranquilizer gun in his hands.

Oz looked around, but Sunnydale was still pretty quiet this early in the morning. Good. No one would be wondering why he was lugging a weapon around at nine o'clock in the morning. He walked at a determined pace toward the front door. Oz heard the rear doors of his van opening, and realized Giles was coming out anyway. Good. Might need a little back-up

Slowly turning the knob, Oz opened the door with his left hand, holding the gun with his right. Almost as soon as the door squeaked open a crack, he could hear the sounds of heavy breathing coming from within, punctuated by the occasional growl. Growl? Oz wondered, then decided he should get in there sooner, rather than later. Abandoning all attempts at covertness, Oz pushed the door open and quickly made his way inside, cradling the tranquilizer gun against his shoulder and scanning the room down its sight like he'd seen in countless action movies.

He followed the moaning and groaning through the kitchen and came upon a scene he really hadn't expected in the living room. Buffy straddling a shirtless Xander, tugging at the bottom of her own top while the straddlee looked on, entranced.

"Tit for tat," Oz heard Buffy say. Neither of them had noticed him yet.

"Interesting choice of words," Xander replied huskily, as his hands found Buffy's thighs and started rubbing them slowly and sensually.

Oz was outraged. Xander sure didn't sound like he was in need of 'saving', as Willow had put it. She had been so worried about him and here he was, about to screw his girlfriend without a care in the world!?

Momentarily putting aside his personal concerns, Oz shouldered the gun and unhesitantly fired a shot at Buffy. She was dangerous, after all. The shot hit home and the Slayer was out after an abortive attempt to exact vengeance. But Oz wasn't done yet.

He impulsively reached into his pocket for another dart and reloaded the weapon. In a fit of righteous anger, he fired at the prone Xander. Oz was quietly satisfied with his shout of pain and the look of betrayal Xander gave him as the dart's effects started to kick in.

"Sorry," Oz shrugged. "Finger slipped." And Xander slipped into unconsciousness.

Giles chose that moment to walk up behind Oz. His eyes widened at the carnage in the room. "Good God," he looked at Xander's unmoving form. "What happened to him!? Is he all right?"

"He's fine," Oz said, deadpan. "Accidentally shot him. Good thing I had more rounds." He patted his dart-filled pocket.

Giles cautiously gave the Slayer's still body a look before entering the room. He bent over Xander's body and checked him for a pulse at his carotid artery. He gave a sigh of relief. "Still strong." The Watcher looked up and stepped toward the end of the sofa opposite Oz. "Oh dear," he gingerly picked up the shredded fabric of a brown sweatshirt. "It appears we arrived just in time."

Oz hadn't seen the torn garment before. Maybe Xander wasn't as willing as I thought... He started to feel even guiltier. It's been almost an hour since Xander left Willow's with Buffy. It couldn't have taken more than half an hour for them to get here. If Buffy was so 'in heat' how come it took them so long to just get topless? Oz had a feeling the answer to that question would paint Xander in a much more noble light than he'd given him credit for a minute earlier.

"Xander!" Oz almost leapt out of his skin. He had been too wrapped up in his thoughts to hear Willow stomping through the kitchen behind him. She brushed past him and ran into the living room, giving Buffy a passing glance. "What happened!?"

Oz's face remained impassive, but on the inside, he was cringing. He would have a lot of explaining to do when Xander woke up.

  
  
  


* * * * *

  
  
  


_3:35 PM_

_Giles' Apartment_

  
  
  


The first thing Xander was aware of was the slight heat on his face. Not hot, just a comfortable warmth. When his eyes flickered open slightly, he realized why when the brilliant rays of the sun forced him to squint. He turned his head away from the light and groaned at the ache that simple movement sent through him. He vaguely heard a chair scuffing against the floor as he closed his eyes and tried to sit up. A small hand soon grabbed his shoulder and helped him up.

"Xander?" a concerned, female voice tried to get his attention. Xander turned his head to the source of the sound and slowly opened his eyes to see a blurry pink blob outlined in red. As his vision cleared, he recognized it as Willow.

He tried to smile. "Hey, Will, what's-" Then the memory of the morning's activities came back to him. "Will! Oh God, Will, I'm so sorry! I-I should never have-"

"Shut up, Xander," Willow said firmly. Which caused Xander to blink and snap his head back. He had gotten used to docile Willow again and that seemed a little out of character. "It wasn't the easiest thing to see and hear, but you did save me. So, forgive and, eventually, hopefully, forget."

"Still, Willow I didn't mean _anything_ that I said to you. _Nothing_," Xander said emphatically. He didn't want to go into specifics in front of the gang.

The gang. He hadn't noticed them at first in his headlong rush to apologize to Willow. Everyone was there. 'There' being Giles' place, Xander realized as he saw the weapons cabinet and completely filled bookshelves across from him. Giles and Amy were sitting behind him at the dining room table, which was covered in old books. Jesse was standing next to his girlfriend, apparently having been behind Willow by a second in getting to his feet. And Oz-

Oz shot me!! Xander suddenly recalled. On purpose! Why did he ... oh right. The whole loving-Willow thing. He was probably a little ticked at me. And probably saw me give in to Buffy at the end there

"Welcome back to the land of the living, amigo," Jesse called from across the room.

"Yes," Giles said, straightening his glasses on his face. They'd slipped down his nose while he'd been looking down, reading. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just got shot full of enough tranquilizer to put a gorilla to sleep." Xander noticed the guilty look flash across Oz's face before just as quickly disappearing. Well, at least he's sorry "How long have I been out?"

"Um," Giles said, looking at the clock on the wall. "Over six hours."

"Six hours!?!? Why didn't anyone wake me?" Xander blurted, then realized how stupid that sounded and mentally kicked himself.

"Well, there was the whole, you-being-out-like-a-light thing that made it a little difficult," Willow said in a slightly patronizing and sarcastic tone.

Xander was glad his friend already seemed to have bounced back from the verbal trouncing he and Buffy had given her that morning. He knew, though, that at least part of it had to be a front she put up to shield her pain from him, so that he wouldn't feel guilty. It wasn't working, though.

He sighed. "Where's Buffy?"

All eyes, except Xander's, turned to the floor just behind the sofa he was sitting up on. Xander leaned backward and followed their gazes, frowning when he saw his girlfriend. Buffy was in chains on the floor, still unconscious.

"We had to tranquilize her again a few hours ago," Giles explained sadly. "She'd started stirring and-and it's doubtful those chains could hold a Slayer for long."

"She was cranky," Amy commented.

"Yes, quite," Giles agreed.

Xander nodded in understanding. It made sense that Slayer metabolism would wake Buffy before him. There was something else, though... Oh, yeah...

"G-Man," Xander began, eliciting 'the look' from Giles, "something's ... different this time."

Giles' annoyance swerved into curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"It took almost two days for m-, uh, the original victims to become as, um, animal-like as Buffy's gotten in twelve hours. I'm wondering why," Xander elaborated.

The Watcher adopted a thoughtful pose, leaning back in his chair. "You're saying Buffy has regressed more quickly than you expected?"

"Maybe it's the Slayer thing," Jesse suggested.

Xander shook his head. "That doesn't make sense. You would think that being the Slayer would give her some sort of natural immunity to possession, or something."

"Of course!" Giles suddenly declared, startling everyone conscious in the room.

"See!" Jesse pointed at Giles. "I was _right_. I'm right, right?" he finished uncertainly.

"A-Actually, I believe you're both right. Partly, at least," Giles temporized. "Xander is right in his-his supposition that Slayers are somewhat immune to this sort of thing. The Watcher Diaries are-are rife with tales of Slayers overcoming demonic possession. I-It's never been proven conclusively, but that is theorized to be due to the-the-the 'Essence' or-or spirit of the Slayer which resides in Buffy and-and her predecessors. And Jesse is right," the young man smiled triumphantly, "in that for this particular case, the Slayer spirit would be a-a hindrance to-to resisting the possession."

"How's that?" Willow asked.

"From what I've been able to gleam from our research, this-this type of animalistic possession is not your average spirit. Most possessing spirits are-are parasitic. That is, they work only toward the preservation of themselves at the expense of their host. They take complete control, while the host is powerless to resist. In a Slayer, the essence should be able to overcome such a malevolent force. In _this_ instance," Giles continued his lecture, his usual stuttering answers absent in the midst of a thought-out explanation. "the possessing spirit does not seek outright control over the body. It merely manifests deeply buried, primitive instincts that reside in us all and perverts them toward its own ends."  
"So, what does being the Slayer have to do with this?" Amy inquired.

Giles removed his glasses while he gathered his thoughts. "The spirit of the Slayer," he began slowly, "is largely a collection of instincts. Fighting skills. Enhanced senses. A sort of ... sixth sense that allows Buffy to detect vampires more easily-"

"You mean like a Spidey sense?" Jesse interrupted. Xander smiled. Leave it to Jesse to pick the same name for it that he had.

"Yes, that's exactly how I'd describe it," Giles replied sarcastically. "The point is that Buffy - her heart and mind and soul that make her who she is - is susceptible to giving in to the instincts of the Slayer. It's-It's what has kept her alive in the fight against evil. Adding another spirit with similar methods, but much different intentions, to the mix could, and evidently has, overwhelmed her. Or very nearly so."

Xander didn't like the sound of that. He'd never really thought of 'the Slayer' like that before. Buffy had never liked her Slayer-ly burdens, but she tolerated them because she had no choice. Whatever gave her powers had never put her at risk before, at least not as directly as it supposedly was now. He shook his head. Buffy could just never catch a break. He took heart, though, in the fact that they now knew the nature of what they were dealing with.

He was wrong.

  
  
  


* * * * *

  
  
  


_6:15 PM_

_Giles' Apartment_

  
  
  


It was almost there. The hyena spirit had spent nearly a day corrupting the soul of its new host. Carefully weeding the right combination of long-suppressed desires and needs that evolution denied its host from the dark pits of her psyche. Quashing the rational protests her mind and heart made as the newly-raised instincts took decision-making out of their hands. And now, its conquest was almost complete.

As Buffy lay unconscious on Giles' couch, the first battle of an internal war for control over her body was reaching its climax. The peaceful obliviousness on her motionless face gave lie to her tumultuous inner struggle. Were she awake, virtually nothing of her old personality would have lingered. She had de-evolved to the point that even human speech was beyond her grasp. All that remained was instinct.

Finally, with one final, strong psychic push for dominance, her soul was beaten. Overrun, with cognizant and coherent thought silenced. And in that moment, the animal spirit howled in triumph.

And in that moment, the animal spirit was defeated.

For as the spirit of Buffy Summers was restrained...

The spirit of the Slayer took command.

It provoked a battle of instincts. The instincts brought to the fore by Buffy's hyena-distorted soul against the instincts of the Slayer.

The hyena spirit may have been as old as mankind, but the power of the Slayer was forged by those that gave the universe life.

It was no contest. The Slayer essence easily repressed the possessing spirit - and with it, Buffy's beleaguered soul. All that remained in control of her body was the Slayer. With a burst of energy brought on by the essence's victory, her tranquilizer-induced slumber was broken.

The Slayer's eyes snapped open.

  
  
  


Movement drew Xander's eyes up from the book he'd been intently scanning. Giles and the others had left shortly after he'd woken up. The Watcher's book collection was largely concentrated at the school library, so the researchers had moved their party there. Xander had offered to stay behind and watch over Buffy, with the tranquilizer gun within arm's reach on the reading table he was using. To kill some time, he'd tried his own hand at scouring the books for a solution to their problem.

The movement was Buffy, sitting up in her chains. Xander was more than a little surprised. When she came to, he'd expected snarling, growling and other inhuman noises to give him a little warning time. But instead, she'd just sat up calmly, her face almost expressionless. He was so stunned that he didn't reach for the tranq gun immediately. It gave the Slayer time to free her arms from behind her back, snapping the chain holding her wrist manacles together with a powerful yank. As Xander finally did make a grab for the weapon, Buffy was making short work of the rest of her shackles.

Getting to his feet and promptly pointing the gun at Buffy, Xander fired.

  
  
  


DANGER! the Slayer's mind screamed at her. After several millennia of facing it, the Slayer could sense danger almost as a second nature. She ducked instantly.

  
  
  


The dart whizzed through the air just where Buffy's shoulder had been a second before. Xander frantically dropped the gun to the table and started to reload, knowing he would be too late. He was able to get a new projectile into the chamber when the weapon was ripped out of his hands and thrown clear across the room. Xander turned to face Buffy, but was met by an open-handed palm thrust to his sternum that sent him flying/stumbling back several feet, finally falling to the floor when he bumped into the coat rack by the front door.

Xander braced himself for a continued attack. It didn't come. Instead, she did something unexpected again.

"I'm sorry," a flat voice that he vaguely recognized as Buffy's apologized. He glanced up to see the Slayer rifling through Giles' weapon cabinet, ultimately taking a stake and a crossbow. She then turned on her heel and started toward him. Xander sprang to his feet, again preparing for the worst. But again, instead of attacking, she simply brushed by him, on the way to the door.

"Buffy, wait!" he cried, grabbing her arm. The next thing he knew, he'd been hip-tossed onto his back again. Once more, she merely ignored him and reached for the doorknob. Forcing down the discomfort, he tried one more time. "Where are you going?"

She paused, looking out the window beside the front door. "The sun has set. I have to hunt," she said in that eerily calm monotone.

"Buff, no!" Xander miraculously got up again. "I can't let you hurt anyone."

"It is my duty to fight them," she said before opening the door and hurrying out. Xander tried to follow, but the night had already swallowed her up by the time he'd gotten to the door.

Maybe in more ways than one Xander thought grimly. He still wasn't sure what had happened, but he did know he would need to call in some bigger guns. He rushed over to the rotary phone Giles kept on the counter between the kitchen and living room. Pulling a scribbled number out of his pants pocket, he dialed the old relic and listened to it ring once before the man on the other side picked it up. Apparently, he'd been expecting his call.

"Angel. We've got more trouble. Meet me at the school library in twenty minutes. I'll explain to everyone when I get there." After waiting for the vampire's assent, he hung up and hurried out the door, picking up his jacket from the floor where it had fallen off the rack. He had a suspicion that things were about to get worse.

This time, he was right.

  
  
  


* * * * *

  
  
  


_7:15 PM_

_SHS Library_

  
  
  


Giles tried to quell the growing feeling of impatience and urgency that had been developing in him since Xander had told them of Buffy's latest actions. Such emotions were counterproductive when lives were at stake. He restrained the urge to flip quickly through the book before him, scanning the pages shortly in search of their solution. His well-trained mind and considerable experience told him that the clue they needed could be a short sentence or reference in an otherwise inconsequential passage. He needed to be thorough.

After Xander had told his tale, Giles had immediately realized the problem. Buffy had somehow become 'the Slayer'. The Essence had 'possessed' her, for lack of a better word. The Council-bred conservative in him rejoiced in that fact. This Buffy would be totally dedicated to the fight against evil, putting aside such trivialities like a social life and conflicting emotions.

But then why was the rest of him yearning for the return of the irresponsible, sometimes insolent and always sarcastic Buffy Summers he'd come to know?

Giles shook his head. The Council would think I've lost my bloody mind Despite Buffy's successes, the Operations Directorate of the Council of Watchers was constantly sending replies to his journal entries demanding more 'obedience' and 'dedication' from the Slayer. And he would send back that he would do just that. As though mere words could force a super-powered, stubborn teenager to do their bidding.

It had been several minutes since everyone had set about their tasks. Giles had been slightly nervous at the presence of the infamous Angelus in his library. Or Angel, as he preferred to be called now. Giles did not find the connotations of his 'new' name humorous in the least. But Xander seemed to trust him, or at least tolerate him, so he let it go. After determining their dilemma, Xander and Jesse, and Angel and Oz split up to search Sunnydale for the wayward Slayer. In the meantime, Giles, Amy, and Willow stayed behind to continue researching. The three groups could keep in contact with each other by way of a trio of cheap walkie-talkies Xander had insisted Giles purchase. Not for the first time, the Watcher was glad for the young man's pragmatic thinking. The evil-fighting 'profession' was still mired in traditional, backwards ways in most quarters.

"Hmmm," Willow hummed from her side of the table. A pile of time-worn, leather-bound journals sat next to her current reading material. Giles had suggested a practical breakdown of labor: Willow would look through the Watcher Diaries of those that served the Council in Africa; Amy would search the books relating to possession and exorcisms; and Giles would act as a Jack-of-all-trades, poring through any tome he thought could have useful information. It was his collection, after all.

"Yes, Willow? Have you found something?" Giles had learned a good deal of respect for the girl's researching skills. She was easily one of the brightest students in the entire school, sophomore or not, and she was almost fanatical in her absorption of new knowledge of the supernatural. If she were in the Watcher's Academy, he would have called her a very promising young prospect.

"Maybe," she started. She checked the title on the front of the book. "These 'Masai' guys, where are they from?"

"Uh, well, they're-they're a nomadic tribe, but in general ... East Africa, present day ... Kenya, Uganda."

"OK, then. This is the diary of Ambrose McKinney, a Watcher in the early 1500s. His Slayer was," she squinted at the page in front of her, trying to sound out the name, "Mag-dek, uh, Mag-dech-el, um, I'm gonna call her Meg," she finished, somewhat sheepishly. "A-Anyway, she was from a small village 'on the shores of a great freshwater sea'," she quoted, then looked up at Giles. "And I remember from geography that the second largest freshwater lake in the world is Lake Victoria in Africa, bordering Kenya, Uganda, and ... Tanzania!" she finished excitedly after searching her memory for a second. Giles nodded patiently, signaling her to go on. "Anyhow, 'Meg' and her Watcher were about to leave the village for more demon-friendly places when 'a wild man' attacked the village. He-he killed a lot of people," Willow paused. "including the Slayer when she tried to stop him."

The Watcher cocked an eyebrow in surprise. He'd thought that Slayers were stronger than animal-possessed bodies. Perhaps she'd been inexperienced.

Willow went on. "McKinney stayed after his Slayer was killed and worked with the village shaman to exorcise the possessed man. And, apparently, it worked." She turned to the next page and her face lit up with excitement. "Oh! Oh! He wrote down the ritual! It's right here!" Willow picked up the journal and showed it to Giles, pointing to the aforementioned information.

Giles heaved an inward sigh of relief. Finally, they'd struck gold in their search. He took the journal from Willow and perused the incantation. He felt his heart drop as he read through it, though. "Damn!"

Willow looked concerned again. "W-What is it, Giles?"

He sighed, this time in frustration. "The incantation must be performed by someone 'pure of heart and blood', in other words someone who, er, that is, a-a person who hasn't-"

"Participated in the naked Olympics?" Amy asked. She smirked at the Watcher's and Willow's collective embarrassment.

"Y-yes, that's one, uh, rather crude way of putting it. A virgin, whose blood must catalyze the exorcism. And, while I've not been much of a-a-a lady's man of late, I, uh, don't qualify. And I am the only one here with the necessary background in the mystical arts. In addition, the ritual itself is quite, uh, taxing on-on the caster and I'm not sure if I have the experience."

The trio sat in silence for several long moments. Just when they'd come so close to solving their mystery, they'd been foiled. Giles shook his head and turned his attention back to his book. "Well, let's get back to-"

"I could do it."

Giles and Willow snapped their heads up to look at the blond girl sitting at the head of the table. What did she say? Giles wondered.

"What?" Willow asked out loud.

"I-I think I can, anyway," Amy said, a tiny bit uncertain now. "It's just ... ever since the cuckoo flew my nest, I've felt ... different, somehow. Like I've got some ... pent-up energy inside me."

Giles tried to interpret that. "Y-you mean, since your mother has-has left your body, you've inherited her ... aptitude for witchcraft?"

"I think so," she shook her head. "I mean, I _know_ so. I, uh, I tried a few simple spells from one of my mom's books," Amy averted her eyes from the Watcher.

Giles frowned. He'd warned young Miss Madison away from experimenting with magic, but, like so much of the advice he gave his teenage cohorts, it seemed to have fallen upon deaf ears. Why do I even bother?

Amy looked up again and tried to defend herself from his silent disappointment. "It worked, though! I can, I can levitate a-a pencil and set things on fire. See!" The girl picked up a piece of paper and crumpled it into a ball. Then she held the clump of loose-leaf in her open palm. After concentrating for a few seconds she said, "Incendre!"

It worked a little better than she'd expected. The entire ball of paper burst into flames instantly. Amy let out a shriek and dropped the flaming sphere on the table ... with its many books. Fortunately, Amy batted the fireball off the table before the valuable research material was harmed and stomped her mini-inferno out.

Giles could feel a fresh headache coming on. He took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. Patience, Rupert, patience. Mustn't unleash Ripper on the world again

"Um, see?" Amy said, much more restrained this time.

The Watcher sighed. "Yes, Amy. I appreciate the fact that you almost set a good portion of my collection ablaze to prove your point." Amy grimaced. "Nevertheless, your point was made. However, I must caution you against this. Despite whatever powers you may have, uh, received from your mother, you still have very little experience. And, as I said, this spell is quite advanced. If anything should go awry, you could be quite seriously hurt, physically or psychically. Or both."

Amy seemed to be given pause by that. But then she shook her head resolutely. "No, I have to do this. I _want_ to do this. If it wasn't for you guys, I'd still be sitting around the house in my mom's body watching Days of Our Lives and wondering who was gonna be on the next Oprah. I owe you all."

Giles was ready to protest again when Willow pre-empted him. "Giles, is there any other way? We've been looking for an answer for the past day and this is all we've found. We don't know how long it will be until we can't get Buffy back at all. What choice do we have?"

The Watcher slouched his shoulders. Willow was right. The odds of there being another spell that fit their rather specific requirements were not good. "Very well. I'll start getting the supplies ready. And I'll need to go home to get the ceremonial knife for Amy to," he pretended to read a line from the spell. "'Sever her right index finger' with."

Amy's eyes grew wide and a terrified squeak came out of her mouth.

Giles grinned marginally and looked up at the horrified girl. "Just kidding."

A little 'Ripper humor' never hurt anyone, though.

  
  
  


_Two blocks from the Bronze_

  
  
  


Jesse looked horrified. Like everything good in the world had been ripped up and shredded in front of him. It looked like his faith in humanity had been wiped out. And his consternation wasn't caused by any demon.

"No ... God no! You're lying! I-I don't believe you! There's-There's no way that's possible!" he protested feebly.

Xander nodded sadly. "Sorry Jess. I wish it wasn't. but it is true. 'Boy Bands' aren't just a fad. They're going to be around for years and they're going to multiply until there are so many that you can barely tell one from another."

"NO!!!" Jesse said, covering his ears as if to shield himself from the horrible truth. "It's-it's ... no! Maybe, maybe they're evil! Yeah! That makes sense. And that means that we have to slay them, right!? Or-or we could do a sp-spell or something..."

Xander listened to Jesse's raving with a small smile as they walked toward the Bronze. One of Jesse's big pet peeves, though Xander didn't know why, was the Backstreet Boys. Whenever he asked why, Jesse would simply reply, "Those guys just bug me."

Xander saw movement across the street out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head sharply, but frowned when he saw it was just a few twenty-somethings staggering around the sidewalk on their way home. Xander scowled. Idiots. Getting plastered and walking home in the dark. That's a good way to get dead in this hellhole

He and Jesse were tasked with looking for Buffy in the west part of town, which included the night club they were heading to at the moment, while Angel and Oz checked the east. As expected, she was no where to be found. At least this time, though, there wasn't much risk of Buffy getting violent with them. The Slayer wasn't supposed to hurt humans. Wonder if that applies to vampires with souls too... Xander wasn't sure how a slay-happy Buffy would react to Angel and he would much rather he didn't find out.

"Jess, can you keep it down? Buff may not be out to hump my leg or eat people anymore, but she still doesn't wanna be found."

Jesse stopped his anti-BsB rant and his mood soured. "Yeah, sure. Better stop crazy Slayer-girl from doing anything else."

On the surface, it seemed like one of Jesse's usual, off-the-cuff comments. But his friend's tone took Xander by surprise. He slowed his brisk walk to barely a crawl and looked at his friend with concern. When Jesse didn't slow down, Xander stopped him with a hand on his arm. "What do you mean by that, Jesse? You don't ... blame Buffy do you?"

The damning silence his question brought on was as good an answer as he could get. "Jess," Xander said, trying to defuse the tension. "Buffy was _possessed_. She wasn't _Buffy_. Buffy doesn't hurt and threaten her friends. Buffy doesn't..." he tried to find a neutral phrase for 'try to rape'. "force herself on her boyfriend. That was the hyena."

"Oh come on! You heard Giles! The hyena doesn't do things for her, it just encourages her to do things she already wanted to! And you know that things haven't been 'fun and fancy-free' between her and Willow since she moved here!" Jesse claimed, shrugging off Xander's hand angrily.

Xander was stunned at Jesse's outburst. He took a step back when Jesse shook off his hand, as though to clear the air between them. "That's-that's not the way it is," Xander said, slightly dazed by his friend's antagonism.

"Maybe, maybe not. Way I see it, you wanna forget everything that she did just so you can have your girlfriend back."

Xander felt like he'd been smacked in the face. Hard. And repeatedly. Jesse's words stirred a memory of long ago when he'd said something similar to Buffy about Angelus/Angel. Xander remembered the hurt and angry look she'd given him that fateful night when everything had come close to falling apart for themselves and the world. He never truly understood until this moment Buffy's point of view. To be accused of being selfish when all you want is the person you love in your arms again.

Jesse must have caught the despairing look on his face, as he started to apologize almost immediately. "I'm sorry, man. That was, that was kinda harsh," he put his hand on Xander's shoulder encouragingly. "It's just ... Willow was my friend first, ya know? She's like my sister. Well, sorta. I don't really like my _actual_ sister, so Wills fills the role."

Xander grinned. "Yeah. I getcha. And if it were anyone but Buffy doing this stuff, I'd be all up-in-arms too. As it is, though..." he trailed off.

"Ya love her," Jesse grinned himself and slapped his friend on the back. "Well, I can forgive a fool in love. As for Buffy ... I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I probably won't rip into her, I'll promise you that much. Just cuz Wills' my friend doesn't mean Buffy can't be."

Feeling much better after Jesse's reassurances, Xander nodded and the duo once again set off for the Bronze, to find their lost friend.

  
  
  


_Eastview Cemetery_

  
  
  


Joshua Sumpton was smarter than your average vampire. That had to do with several things. First, he was technically eighty-some years old, having been one of the first minions the Master turned upon his arrival in Sunnydale sixty years ago. Second, he'd been well aware of the existence of the undead when he died the first time. Mr. Sumpton had been a young clergyman when he'd moved to Sunnydale and he'd sheltered many people in his church who were running scared from the unholy terrors of the night. It had taken half a dozen such encounters before he admitted the existence of the creatures of the night.

He'd been turned the night the Master had tried to open the Hellmouth for the first time. In fact, it was his church that the dimensional gateway lay beneath. When the earthquake had collapsed the building and entrapped the Master, he continued serving loyally, knowing that any hint of betrayal would bring upon him the wrath of his sire's primary enforcers, Luke and Darla. His continued survival after so long was a testament to his skillful maneuvering, that made him one of the Master's most trusted minions.

Another testament to his intelligence was the fact that right now, he was running.

Fast.

Joshua, or Joss as he called himself these days, and two lesser minions had been out on a 'recruiting drive'. Finally, reinforcements from the Master's broods overseas had begun arriving to make up the losses the Slayer and her compatriots had inflicted. That meant the Draconian restraints the Master had imposed on his minions regarding going out at night had been relaxed. Joss himself had not hunted for over a month and was eager for a fresh kill.

That plan had gone all to hell when the Slayer showed up.

It was odd. He'd heard stories from those few vampires that survived an encounter with the Slayer that she talked her victims' ears off while she fought. It was a tactic that worked well against minions accustomed to having humans quiver in fear before them. But tonight, the first sign that she had crashed their party was the death scream of one of his companions as a crossbow bolt pierced his heart.

Then the Slayer had flipped off the crypt she'd been perched on, landing on her feet between himself and his other 'friend'. Luckily for Joss, she'd attacked his 'friend'. The ferocity of her attack shocked him and before he knew it, survival instincts kicked in and he was racing away at top speed. His sensitive ears were just able to make out the Slayer's words as he high-tailed it back to the hideout.

Joss kept running, even though he'd probably outdistanced his potential pursuer enough to lose her. Nevertheless, he kept checking behind him to see if the Slayer was giving chase. He was so preoccupied watching out for her that he didn't sense the figures right in front of him as he swung around a large crypt. He barreled into one of them, knocking them both to the ground.

Joss looked at who he bumped into and saw that it was a teenage boy with spiky, jet black hair. Maybe I'll get to eat tonight after all

With that thought in mind, Joshua was shocked when the boy glared at him with ice cold eyes and flipped them over so that he was on top. The vampire was even more surprised when he produced a stake from his jacket and prepared to plunge it into Joss' chest.

"Wait!" the other guy said, grabbing the staker's arm in mid air. "Who were you running from?"

Joss suddenly realized something. The other guy didn't have a heartbeat. He could practically hear the boy's blood boiling, but nothing from the tall, dark guy. His hopes plummeted. This was Angelus. The traitor who fought with the Slayer. And the boy must be one of her little groupies. Joss was so concerned with his future safety that he didn't answer Angel's question.

Angel grabbed Joss by his sweater, motioning the boy to get up. He did, and the vampire picked his soulless counterpart up and slammed him into the cement wall of the tomb. "Who. Were. You. Running. From," he enunciated the words clearly.

Joss saw no point in lying. "The Slayer!" he hissed.

Angel's eyes narrowed. "Where is she?" he demanded in a quiet and dangerous voice.

Joss tried to shrug, but in his position, that wasn't the easiest motion to carry out. "I don't know. She-" Then he truly recalled for the first time what the Slayer had asked his comrade as he'd fled. And after a moment, he laughed.

Mistake.

Joss' laughter was cut off by Angel's fist breaking his nose. It started to heal almost immediately, but the vampire still howled in pain. Then Angel took out a wooden stake of his own and pressed it into Joss' chest, barely penetrating it and drawing a droplet of blood. "I don't see the humor in this situation. Now I may be a little behind the times in that department, but right now I could care less. Tell me where she is or you'll be fertilizing the grass."

Joss smirked at his tormentor. "She wanted to know where the Master was."

Angel tensed up at Joss' answer. Then he changed into his 'game face' and headbutted him, drawing blood from the former priest's nose yet again. Joss slumped to the ground as Angel released him. "My advice is to get out of town. Because the next time I see you, I'll kill you," And the souled vampire turned and walked away.

If he had the breath to do it, Joss would have sighed in relief. He'd escaped Angelus' clutches alive (or undead, anyway) and the Slayer was about to foolishly charge into the Master's lair. She'd be killed, he had no doubt. No Slayer had come close to besting his sire in centuries-

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden pain in his chest. Joss had a moment to register the black-haired boy standing in front of him and the stake embedded in his chest before he burst into dust.

"He didn't say anything about me killing you," were the last words Joss heard.

  
  
  


_The Bronze_

  
  
  


Another dead-end. Not that they'd expected to find Buffy cutting the rug on the dance floor, but the Bronze was a common feeding ground for the undead. It was reasonable to assume that the Slayer would make an appearance too. No such luck for Jesse and Xander, though.

The two boys wound their way through the thickening Thursday night crowd as they made their way to the front of the building. There was a cemetery nearby that Xander wanted to check out. Just as they made it to the door, however, they found it blocked by the entrance of a bevy of buxom, brainless bimbos Think that ten times fast, Xandman known affectionately, or not depending on the point of view, as the Cordettes. They were led, of course, by the grand, exalted Queen C herself.

Xander groaned inwardly. He knew what was coming. Cordelia could never pass up an opportunity to mock him and his friends. And for her, opportunity knocked every time she laid eyes on them.

"Oh, look," she said, half to them and half to her covey. "It's the Hardly Boys." Of course, Cordelia's pack giggled in agreement. Xander rolled his eyes. Jesse bristled at the insult. Which was a little strange, Xander thought. He usually took Cordy's jabs and then hit on her. Amy had obviously trained him well.

"So where's your little harem, boys? Finally got tired of you and took a step up? Y'know to 'White Trash'?" More imbecilic laughter from the flock.

On a normal day, Xander would match Cordelia jibe-for-jibe. But he was short on time right now. So he did the next best thing. Giving her a knowing smile, even though there as nothing to know, he breezed by her casually. He had learned that little trick served to irritate her more than any clever and sharp-tongued comeback. Jesse followed him, picking up on the game plan. He inadvertently bumped into Cordelia, which brought out her mean streak again.

"Ugh!" she recoiled from Jesse like he was covered in poison. "Cop a feel, much!? Wouldn't your little blow-up doll girlfriend not like that?"

Jesse stopped in his tracks after that. As Xander turned to his friend, Jesse suddenly spun and faced Cordelia, obviously furious. The Cordettes all but leapt backwards and even Cordy flinched a bit. "Listen, Bitch Queen!" he shouted, drawing the attention of nearly everyone within earshot. It was a rare sight indeed when someone back-talked to Cordelia Chase. "I don't care what you say about me, but do _not_ take shots at Amy. And while you're at it, how 'bout keeping your trap shut about me, huh?"

Xander stared in amazement and amusement at his friend going toe-to-toe with Cordelia. He never thought he'd see the day when Jesse finally told off the future May Queen.

"Um, excuuuuse me-" Cordelia started indignantly, but was cut off by Jesse.

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry," Jesse said, not sounded one bit contrite. "Did I not pay her high-heeled highness proper respects before speaking in her presence!? Get over yourself, Cordy! You think I'll let you walk all over me and my friends just cuz I'm a harmless little puppydog nipping at your heels? Well, guess what, Cor! This puppydog's got teeth," he finished, and took a step back. It seemed like the crowd let out the collective breath it had been holding at the tension-breaking move. "Now, you and the airhead brigade have a _great_ time tonight. You know, if you can stand all the attention." He abruptly walked out the exit, the squeak the door made audible because the DJ was between songs and in the rest of the area was in a shocked silence. There were a couple whoops of support from the crowd, but Xander could have sworn he heard a pin drop otherwise.

Xander couldn't help it anymore. The smirk he'd been trying to contain broke out across his face. Jesse's rant had been inspired. He'd ended it on just the right note, too. Cordelia was always such a glory-hound, but he doubted she'd appreciate any of the attention she'd get tonight. And Cordy was just standing there! Speechless! It was truly one for the ages.

"Game, set and match to the Jess-ter," he muttered, just loud enough for Cordelia to hear him. She gave him a nasty glare but still said nothing. A new song came on and the party was picking up again after the entertaining interlude.

"Xander!" a voice called from the doorway. Jesse had just poked his head in and was waving their two-way radio in his hand significantly. Xander quickly put the last few minutes behind him as his concern for Buffy came rocketing back to him. He left Cordelia and her friends behind just as quickly.

Letting the door swing shut behind them, Xander and Jesse walked a few feet away from the boisterous noises of the Bronze. "OK, Dead Man Walking, go ahead," Jesse said into the radio's speaker.

Xander knew that Angel had to be gritting his teeth on the other end. It brought a smile to his face before the vampire's answer wiped it off.

"She's going to a crypt in Restfield Cemetery, a couple blocks behind the Bronze. The Rawlins' family crypt."

Xander thought he was going to have a heart attack. Said organ skipped a beat before starting to pound like a jackhammer. The pieces of the puzzle that was Buffy's behavior started clicking into place.

"She's not going after vampires, she's going after _the_ vampire," he realized out loud. Before Jesse could ask what he was talking about, he grabbed the walkie-talkie from his friend's hands and keyed 'transmit'. "The Master?" he asked Angel.

"Yes," was all the 240-year-old said.

"Dammit," Xander said softly, picking up steam as he continued. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!" He spoke to Angel again. "We'll met you there. I'll call Giles." The vampire confirmed that after a second and a flash of static.

Xander turned the radio over, the antenna flopping around as he did. He turned the frequency knob to the hand drawn 'L' and spoke into it again. "Giles."

  
  
  


_The Library_

  
  
  


The radio standing upright on the circulation desk squawked his name as Giles was preparing for the spell. He was drawing a series of obscure symbols on the inner edge of the circle he had already sketched on the floor in chalk. The sixteenth century ceremony they were copying tonight was an amalgamation of three spells. One was the standard ritual to transfer an animal spirit from person to person, but without any messy 'predatory acts'. The outer circle and the symbols the Watcher was currently drawing were needed for that.

The next part was a protection spell. Once cast, it would surround Amy with a spherical barrier to magic for about an hour. It would keep her from being possessed when the spirit was drawn toward her. Cast within the chalk-drawn circle, it would create a magical 'shell' where the hyena spirit would be trapped.

But not for long. That was where the third and most difficult part came in. The banishment spell. It would destroy the spirit, or cast it into limbo or somesuch. Watcher McKinney wasn't too clear on that. Probably because he had no way of knowing what happened to it. The spell was a test of strength and wills; Amy's magical expertise and power against the animal spirit's survival instinct and primordial power. That was the part that had Giles worried. The young girl might have the raw power needed, but she was far from practiced in the mystic arts.

Getting up on his knees, Giles shuffled his way to the desk, careful to avoid marring the painstakingly-etched characters. "Xander?" he asked, speaking into the radio.

When the young man's voice came back, it was evident he was moving. "Yeah, G-Man. We've got a line on Buffy. She's ... she's going after the Master."

Giles jumped to his feet, startling Willow and Amy, working at the table. "The-the Master?" he repeated back.

"Uh-huh," Xander's voice was deceptively calm. "Does that work into your Slayer-possession theory?"

"I suppose it could. It-it makes a kind of detached sense. Start at the top and work your way down through the vampire hierarchy. Bu-But Buffy hasn't trained enough to face a demon of the Master's caliber, yet. He makes Lothos and the others she's defeated pale in comparison. She'll-"

"I get the picture, Giles. She won't win, super Slayer or not."

"Oh, especially not in her current state," Giles continued. "As she is now, uh, she-she is running on instinct. She will fight ferociously, but without her conscious mind limiting her actions. She has no perception of, um, fo-for instance 'strategic withdrawal', or-or 'live to fight another day.' She'll attack until she is completely spent."

There was a long pause as the Watcher's listeners processed that. Amy and Willow were also watching him with concerned expressions. Giles spoke again. "On the bright side, we-we seem to have found a way help Buffy, to destroy the original hyena spirit."

The response was immediate from Xander. "Oh thank God! So get going! Do your abracadabra stuff and we won't have to worry about Buffy walking into a hornet's nest."

Giles sighed, a sound which went unheard by those on the other side of the walkie-talkie. He keyed it on. "It will take some time, Xander. It's a fairly complex ritual and Amy is still memorizing her parts for it."

After a couple seconds, a new speaker made his presence known. "Amy!? What are you talkin' about!? Magic's bad, magic leads to the badness!!" It was Jesse.

"I have pointed out the risks to her Jesse, but, er, she was, um, rather insistent."

"Stubborn as a mule, more like," Jesse muttered across the airwaves.

"I heard that!" Amy called, though Jesse couldn't hear her with Giles not sending.

"Look," Jesse went on over the radio. "Just ... just tell her to be careful, OK? I don't want her ... turning into a, a frog or a sex-crazed feline and shut your mouth, Willow!" he said, seamlessly. Willow, sitting at the table, bit down her 'hyenas aren't felines' retort and smiled.

Xander had taken back the radio and he spoke again after the crackle of static. "Yeah, good luck, Amy. And guys, time is of the essence here. Buff's probably on her way to the Master's lair already. Just ... hurry," he pleaded, a slightly desperate tone entering his speech.

"We will, Xander," Giles said confidently, trying to lend the worried boy a little extra poise. "Just find her and bring her back in one piece."

"Gotcha, G-Man." And he signed off.

Giles set the radio down and returned to his work, his more hurried motions betraying his own fear and uncertainty.

  
  
  


_Outside the Rawlins' crypt_

  
  
  


By the time they had finished talking to Giles, Jesse and Xander were standing outside the tomb that housed the entrance to the Master's lair and the maze of tunnels that led to it. Xander felt a chill go through him as he stepped through the arched entryway. He'd been here a grand total of two times in his original timeline and neither were cheerful occasions. The first was the last time he'd seen Jesse alive until recently. The second was just before the Master left Buffy for dead. This third visit wasn't shaping up to be any better.

Jesse and Xander walked down the three steps to the crypt's cold, concrete floor. Jesse moved slowly, taking the place in. Xander knew exactly where he was going, and made a beeline for the opposite side of the room, walking between two elevated caskets holding the remains of some long dead husband and wife. Even before he reached the cast iron barred gate to the depths of Sunnydale's tunnel system, his heart sank to his feet. There was a chain with a still-closed lock attached to it on the ground in front of the gate, casually discarded there by whoever had broken in.

Who the mysterious vistor was was obvious. The vamps emerging from or returning to the tunnels wouldn't break the gate down. It had to be an intruder. Of the vampire slaying kind.

"Crap," Xander sighed. He'd hoped to get here before Buffy and maybe try and stop her from doing something stupid. It was unlikely he could keep the Slayer from carrying out her kamikaze mission, but at least he'd know where she was. Now, though, they'd have to follow her. And the only one who could do that was...

"Deadboy," Jesse greeted. Xander turned to see Angel entering the crypt. The vampire scowled at his welcome. He then looked past Xander and frowned. Or, more accurately, his neutral expression dropped fractionally.

"She's gone?" he asked.

"Where's Oz?" Jesse wanted to know. He smirked. "Didja get hungry on the way here?"

Angel chose to ignore the dig. "He's catching up. We ran here."

That explained how Angel crossed town so quickly. Vampires were 'blessed' with supernatural speed to go along with super-strength and agility. All the better to chase you with, my dear.

While they waited for Oz to arrive, Xander filled Angel in on the spell Amy was going to try. Jesse still didn't look comfortable with his girlfriend's decision. He was shifting his weight from one leg to another for the fortieth time when Oz staggered into the crypt, breathing hard.

"Welcome to the party, Oz-man," Jesse said to the musician, who was catching his breath while bent over with his hands on his knees. He tried to respond but was overcome by the need to breathe some more.

Xander brought them back to the problem at hand. "Well, let's get this show on the road." He stepped away from the tunnel entrance and dramatically gestured for Angel to go first. "Lead the way, Toucan Sam."

Angel looked at him blankly, while Jesse and Oz merely rolled their eyes.

"You know, the Fruit Loops bird?" he tried to copy the cereal mascot's accent. "Follow your nose!"

Angel simply shook his head and walked by a smiling Xander. "You're strange."

The others followed after him. "I'm strange!?" Xander replied incredulously. "You're a two hundred forty year old walking, talking corpse who drinks blood and is fighting evil to make up for a century and a half of killing and maiming and _I'm_ strange?"

Angel didn't even miss a beat. "Yes. For a dead twenty year old living in the body of your sixteen year old self sent back in time to fight evil, you are quite strange."

"Pfft!" Xander dismissed as they turned a corner in the dank underground corridor. Flickering shadows danced across the roughly hewn rock walls, floor and ceiling, cast there by torches hung on the left wall every thirty feet or so. He was suddenly struck by a horrifying thought. Deadboy and I are ... bantering? What has the world come to?

The four soon reached a junction in the tunnel, forking two ways. The torchlight could be seen emanating from both directions, so the light couldn't tell them which way to go. How do they keep all these torches lit? Xander wondered, then settled on the Sunnydale catch-all answer - magic.

They stopped when Angel halted suddenly. The vampire slowly turned his head one way, then the other, focusing his vampiric senses on some target Xander could only guess at.

"This way," Angel said, leading them through the passageway on the right.

After a few feet, Angel stopped them again, holding up his hand. "I hear something," he whispered, which was magnified by the echo of their close quarters. "A scream."

They all looked at one another, and then set off again, Xander and Angel setting a faster-than-brisk pace as they descended deeper into the Master's labyrinth.

  
  
  


_The Master's Lair_

  
  
  


He knew she was coming long before his first minion fell to her wrath. You don't live nearly eight centuries and not pick up an innate ability to sense your mortal foes when they are near. And for the Master, the only potential threat to his continued existence was the Slayer. The bane of demonkind, she was called in some circles. Lesser circles than his, to be sure.

Because to the Master, the Slayer was not an arch-foe. She was a ... concern. An enemy to be respected, certainly. He had seen far too many of his comrades fall to previous Slayers and too many of his childe to the current Chosen One to dismiss her outright. But defeating Slayers was something he'd been doing routinely since his bicentennial. They would seek him out. They would try to kill him. They would die trying.

Then there were those that provoked his ire. Those that destroyed his childe. _He_ would seek them out. They would defend themselves. And they, too, would die. Horribly.

Were he able, this Slayer would have died by his hand months ago. But the blasted magics that had backfired on him so long ago prevented that. It frustrated him to no end. But no more. _She_ had come to him.

Another scream ripped through his cavern as the Slayer took another unlife. The Master sat calmly on the jewel-encrusted throne in the center of the room, waiting for the Slayer to make her entrance. He was alone, having ordered his other minions, along with the Anointed One, out. This Slayer seemed more resilient than most. The Master didn't want to reveal his hand just yet, should she slip from his clutches yet again.

The sounds of fighting in the tunnel above and in front of him intensified, until the body of another vampire was launched through the entranceway. It disintegrated into ashes before it even hit the ground. Then she entered.

The Slayer stepped into view, stake in hand, a look of fierce determination in her eyes. She seemed ready to enter the cavern when she spin-kicked a minion that tried to attack her from behind. The vampire flew backwards.

"Leave us!" the Master bellowed. The minion, and two others that had followed him, immediately paused at the powerful vampire's order. Picking up their fallen comrade, they pulled him away and left the Slayer to her own devices.

She again turned to the Master, her expressionless mask still in place. Curious. She seems ... passionless. But then, that _is_ how the Council trains them. Fools

"Welcome, Slayer," he announced, nonchalantly standing up from his throne. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"

The Slayer didn't answer. She just leapt into a front flip, bypassing the stairs that led down to his inner sanctum, and landed acrobatically on her feet a few meters away from him.

"Impressive display. Personally, I do appreciate a good show before my kills. Makes the blood that much sweeter." 

As he spoke, the Slayer attacked. She jump-kicked the Master, catching him by surprise, staggering him back a few steps.

"But, then, there is such a thing as too much talk," The Slayer tried a right cross, which the Master easily blocked. Swatting her arm away, he backhanded her, sending her airborne for several feet. "And too little action," he finished, advancing on the fallen Slayer. She flipped herself up and leapt to the attack again, fists and feet flying.

  
  
  


_The Tunnel, a hundred feet from the Master's Lair_

  
  
  


"We're getting close," Angel predicted. The four men were almost running by now. As they neared their destination, it was much easier for the vampire to discern the right direction. The corridor was more brightly lit as they continued, another sign that they were reaching the end of the road.

There was a curve in the trail ahead and the next clue that they were closing in rounded the corner and blocked their way. Five vampires, shabbily dressed and sporting their demonic aspects stood there, stopping their progress. The sound of snarling behind the four alerted them to the presence of a trio of vamps to their rear.

The lead vampire, at the head of the group to their front, spoke. "The Master said _no_ interruptions."

As one, the demons ran at the four intruders, who drew stakes and crosses (except for Angel, naturally) to defend themselves.

  
  
  


_The Library_

  
  
  


Amy Madison was nervous. More than nervous, really. Frightened. Terrified out of her mind. She'd brushed off Giles' warning before, but she knew the risks of what she was about to do. Amy had read from several of her mother's magic books and knew that the banishment spell she was attempting to cast required skill she wasn't sure she possessed. The consequences of failure had been vague, but none of it was good for the spellcaster.

Amy was kneeled inside the ritualistic circle Giles had hastily drawn on the floor of the library. The protection spell had already been performed, so she was surrounded by an invisible barrier against evil spirits like the one she was summoning tonight. An ornate knife, a large crucible filled with a concoction the Watcher had put together, and Giles' carefully handwritten note with the spells written on it lay before her, left to right.

The young witch tugged at the white scrunchie wrapped around her wrist, as if to ensure that it really was securely attached there. Lacking direct contact with Buffy, the transpossession spell needed something that belonged to the possessed party to be in contact with the body of the new host. Giles had found the hair tie in the training room, abandoned there after one of the Slayer's vigorous practice sessions.

Amy looked up at the other two people in the library. Giles' forehead was wrinkled more than usual. He was obviously having a hard time choosing between the well-being of Buffy and Amy's safety. Willow looked concerned as well, but put on a happy face when Amy glanced at her. The red head smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

Taking a deep breath, Amy looked down at the first spell's text, skimming through it one last time. Most of it was in Latin, but thankfully, she didn't need to understand it, she just had to speak it. Giles had helped by writing the words out phonetically. Amy ran the memorized words through her mind one more time before starting.

"God of the hunt," she spoke in Latin. "Hear me. Lend me thine power over the beasts of this realm. Let their essence flow through me..."

  
  
  


_The Tunnel_

  
  
  


The first vampire came running headlong at Xander. Stupid of it. At the last second, Xander crouched, letting the thing almost flop over him before lifting with all his might. The result was a picture perfect back body drop as the vamp landed on its back in the middle of the square he, Jesse, Oz and Angel made as they fought back-to-back and side-by-side against the demons. I knew watching Smackdown! would pay off one of these days!

The vampires' attack was uncoordinated. The three attacking from their rear were still several meters away when Xander and Angel started taking on the front vamps. Seeing this, Jesse took the opportunity to turn around and slam his stake into the chest of the flipped vampire. It screeched and died an instant later. Jesse, looking very proud of himself, turned back to the rapidly approaching trio.

The confined space of the tunnel was not the best place for a brawl. Chances were, an extended limb would hit solid rock instead of an opponent. That happened to the second vampire to attack Xander. The right-handed demon tried to punch him in the head, but it was dodged and instead hit the wall behind him. A few splinters of rock flew out from the impact, but the vamp's fist was well and truly wrecked until its healing powers kicked in. Xander didn't give him the chance. With the vampire off balance, it was simple to grab its extended arm and wrench it counterclockwise, causing his opponent to lean backwards to ease the strain. A swift kick to the back of its knees sent the vamp off his feet. A foe is beaten easiest when he was prone on the ground, Giles had told him several times during their training.

Another vampire came up to him, but Xander raised the cross in his left hand and the creature backed away two steps. It was all the breathing room he needed to drop to one knee and stake the vampire at his feet. Another one bites the dust.

As Xander focused on his new adversary, he saw a short-lived cloud of dust out of the corner of his eye. Angel had taken care of one of his vampires. Or he'd been taken care of himself. Xander doubted that, though. He didn't think these vamps were carrying stakes on them. Why would they? No vampire would be dumb enough to infiltrate the Master's Lair with hostile intentions.

Xander did a mental tally. Three vamps dusted, two to go in front of them. Jesse and Oz holding off three behind them. The odds had nearly evened out.

Suddenly, the vampire lashed out at Xander's stake hand with a clawed slash. Xander jerked his hand away, but accidentally rammed it into the wall in the process. Pain shooting up his arm, he dropped the wooden weapon and it landed with a clatter on the ground. A backhand to his left forearm jarred the cross from his grasp and suddenly, Xander was unarmed. But that wasn't the dangerous predicament for him that it used to be.

The vampire swung at Xander with a hard right. Almost automatically, the young man's arm shot up to block it. Training kicking in, the resulting holes in the creature's defenses were identified instinctively and Xander attacked. Right hook to the face. Left side kick. Roundhouse kick to the gut. Times two. Left uppercut to knock the vampire back five feet.

Xander had no way of ending this, though. He'd lost track of where his stake had ended up. Then he saw the crossbow, discarded in the middle of the tunnel. The one Buffy had taken with her and apparently lost use for. Xander charged at the vampire, making it assume a defensive posture. Just as it seemed Xander would barrel into the vamp, he redirected slightly to the right and tucked into a roll. Rolling under the vampire's grasp as it lunged for him, Xander found his footing again right next to the crossbow. In one motion, he grabbed the weapon and stood up, spinning on his heel. The vamp had turned around and was about to try backpedaling away. Xander aimed quickly at the demon's chest and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Both Xander and the vampire looked at the crossbow. There was no arrow in the drawstring. The logical part of Xander pointed out that was probably why Buffy left it behind. The rest of him told logic to shut up.

Xander and the vamp looked up from the crossbow to stare at one another. It was like the malfunction had broken the rhythm of their fight and they were waiting for the other to take the initiative. Xander did, after a moment.

Shoving the useless crossbow at the vampire, he charged in after it. The vamp batted the thrown weapon away, but then could not dodge Xander as the young man tackled him. The two skidded a few feet before landing hard on the uneven, rocky ground, the vampire breaking much of Xander's fall.

Xander realized he didn't have much time. Now that they were both struggling on the ground, it was only a matter of time before the demon used its superstrength to overpower him. To his immense relief, he saw his lost stake above the vampire's head. He reached up and clutched it just as the vamp got the upper hand and rolled them over, pinning Xander to the floor. With a snarl, the creature leaned down to bite Xander.

With a grunt of pain, the vamp stilled, then exploded into dust as Xander's stake penetrated its back.

The urge to just lay where he was for a while was tempting for Xander. But the continued sounds of fighting reminded him that his friends were still battling for their very lives, so he quickly got to his feet and prepared to leap into the fray once again.

  
  
  


_The Library_

  
  
  


Amy felt the power churning around inside her like pot of boiling water rattling its lid, threatening to blow the top right off. It didn't hurt, the sensation was more of a neutral feeling, not too hot, not too cold, just ... there. Her mind would have made a sarcastic Goldilocks comment if it weren't concentrating completely on the spell. She was nearing the end of the transpossession portion of the ceremony.

"...unchain her soul! Bring me the power I desire!" That was it for the Latin. The last words of the ritual were in some ancient African dialect that Giles hadn't even guessed at. "_Yu Ba Ya Sa Na!"_

The slight queasiness from the power circulating through Amy's system suddenly stopped. The library was utterly silent as its three occupants held their breath.

  
  
  


_The Master's Lair_

  
  
  


The combat was savage. Buffy had lost her stake early on in the contest and therefore had to depend on her substantial martial arts skills. The Master and the Slayer traded blows repeatedly. A mind-jarring backhand for a vicious snap kick. A bone-crunching body blow for a jumping spin kick. And on and on it went. One thing was apparent, however. The Slayer was wearing herself out while the Master barely broke a sweat. Metaphorically speaking.

Buffy's mind was silent. She only had one goal: kill this vampire. No higher strategy, no clever tricks up her sleeve should things go sour. Only fight. Fight and die. It was the way it had been since the beginning of time.

But to battle effectively against the darkness, 'the Slayer' couldn't go it alone. Desire and instinct to fight were not enough. The 'battle' against evil was just that. A battle. A series of tactical engagements toward a strategic goal. Fighting those required a mind. To plan. To weigh options. To call it a day when the odds were too great. And since spring of 1996, that mind had belonged to Buffy Summers.

Without Buffy's mental guidance, the Slayer could not fight effectively. And without the Slayer's powers and instincts, Buffy could not fight at all. One depended on the other in a symbiotic kind of relationship.

So without Buffy, the Slayer was fighting the Master and losing, but unwilling to give in to the logic of her situation.

That changed in a fraction of a second.

As Buffy connected with another spin kick to the Master's hard cranium, the spirit of the hyena, suppressed and held in check for barely two hours, was ripped from around her soul. Taking with it the corruption it had caused Buffy's soul over the past day.

With the possession broken, Buffy's thoughts and feelings came rushing back to the fore. Under the tsunamic wave of emotions, the Slayer essence went back to its rightful place, as the iron fist hidden within Buffy's sixteen year old frame.

Where the heck am I? she wondered. Having been repressed and unsensing while the Slayer was in control, Buffy had no memory of the past two hours. The question lingered in her mind until she looked up into the face of the being before her. The face that had haunted her nightmares for far too many nights since she'd come to Sunnydale.

The Master.

She couldn't help herself. Buffy froze in terror. To unexpectedly confront the vampire that had killed her countless times in dreamland was too much to bear. Her throat constricted and she stopped breathing. She tried commanding her feet to move but they wouldn't work.

Suddenly, the Master reached for her, his clawed talons glistening red with blood. Just as suddenly, Buffy forgot that she was the Slayer. She forgot that she could fight back and have a decent chance of surviving. She just did what any teenage girl would do when confronted by the monster from her nightmares.

She screamed.

  
  
  


_The Tunnel_

  
  
  


Xander quickly took stock of the situation. Angel was still fighting his last opponent, the ambush party's leader. The souled vampire had misplaced his stake as well and he was exchanging punches and kicks with the vamp leader. Meanwhile, Jesse and Oz were holding off the other three vampires with their crosses, but weren't able to attack without exposing themselves to deadly risk.

Xander was about to run and help his two friends when a piercing scream ripped through the tunnel, echoing off its stone walls. A feminine scream. Buffy's. He didn't think stoic Slayer-girl would shriek like that, so Xander was left with one conclusion: Amy's spell had worked and Buffy was back.

And currently facing her worst nightmare. Literally.

He acted quickly. He couldn't just leave Jesse and Oz in the lurch. He'd get Angel to help them. "Angel!"

  
  
  


The vampire had just pelted his enemy with a hard left to the face. Angel looked up after his name was called and saw a stake flying at him, blunt end first. Angel caught it and swiftly stabbed it through the vampire's chest, rendering it dead after a couple seconds.

Through the thinning dust cloud, Angel saw Xander scoop up the dropped cross he had lost in the recent fight. The young man pointed behind Angel. "Help them!"

It took a second to realize Xander was talking about helping Jesse and Oz against the three vampires still left standing. As Angel spun to do so, he also realized that Xander was not following him. He turned to see him running flat out in the other direction. Towards the Master's Lair.

A hundred objections came to mind. You'll never make it in time! The Master's too strong! I should go instead of you! Angel didn't voice any of them, however. Xander had already disappeared around the curve in the tunnel ahead.

Resigning himself to the inevitable, Angel turned and jumped between Jesse and Oz, attacking the three vampires fiercely. They needed to get this over with fast so he could save Xander from his own incredible bravery/stupidity.

  
  
  


_The Library_

  
  
  


It had been several seconds since the incantation was completed. Giles had warned of this. Since Buffy was farther away, the transference could take some time. More time passed.

"D-Did it work?" Willow asked tentatively. She was answered a second later.

With a yelping cry, a green ethereal spirit slammed into the protective field surrounding Amy. The shield was visible momentarily as a shimmering distortion in the air two feet from Amy's kneeling form. The three people in the room were startled by the spirit's sudden and violent appearance. Amy almost fell over backwards and her eyes were wide with ill-concealed fear.

The protection spell was working as advertised, fortunately. The hyena spirit tried reaching Amy again, but was repulsed by the magic barrier. Thwarted, it started to circle Amy's protective bubble, searching for weak points. The barking laughter continued as the spirit orbited the young witch.

"Amy!" Giles called over the din. "The banishment! Finish it!"

His words seemed to snap Amy out of her fearful trance. Swallowing thickly, she looked at the notes again. She tried to reign in her quickening breaths and ran a hand through her hair nervously. The banishment spell was vocally short, but she needed to concentrate on focusing powers she didn't completely understand to make it work.

Amy picked up the ceremonial knife. Giles had been joking about the ritual dismemberment, but not about the need for blood to jump-start the final, crucial step of the rite. Hesitantly, she drew the blade across the palm of her hand, trying to block out the pain. With an inch long cut cleaved into her skin, Amy closed her fist and squeezed over the crucible. A few drops of blood escaped, creating miscible red dots in the clear solution.

"Spirit of the plains! Spirit near me! I, of pure blood and soul, command thee..." Trying to block out all external influences, Amy squeezed her eyes tightly shut and turned all her focus inward. "Be gone!!"

Involuntarily, her eyes flashed open, revealing pure white energy dancing where her pupils used to be. Giles took a step back at the sight and Willow squeaked out an alarmed sound. But before they could react further, the battle of wills and power had ended. With one last keening wail, the translucent spirit of the hyena was enveloped by a burst of white light. When the blinding light dimmed, the green apparition dissipated into thin air.

When the last of the hyena spirit was gone, Amy collapsed, spent. Giles rushed over, kneeling beside the fallen girl. Thankfully, her breathing seemed normal and the only evident injury was the self-inflicted cut on her left hand.

"Willow! G-Get me the first aid kit! Under the counter!" he said, pointing.

Willow hurried off to find it and saw the radio still sitting on the desk counter. She picked it up as she bent down to retrieve the medical kit and pushed transmit. "Guys, guys! Amy did it! It worked! Buffy should be back and all Willow-friendly now!" She found the white box with the red cross symbol and ran around the counter with it to hand it to Giles. She realized she hadn't gotten any feedback on the walkie-talkie. "Guys?"

There was no response.

  
  
  


_The Master's Lair_

  
  
  


The Slayer's sudden terrified cry startled the Master more than the whole of their fight had. She had not shown one iota of emotion throughout the entire battle until that moment. He recovered quickly from his surprise, though.

With a snarling roar, he unleashed a backhanded uppercut that caught the Slayer under her chin. She was lifted into the air by the blow and crashed into the wall several feet away. As the Slayer shakily got to her feet, the Master stalked inexorably toward her, sensing his ultimate victory approaching. He could finally smell the petite blonde's fear. That had always been the harbinger of death for the Slayers he had defeated before.

As the Master stepped in front of her, the Slayer swung at him in a last ditch effort. He easily caught her fist with his left hand and quickly brought his other arm up high in the air before sending it crashing down on the Slayer's shoulder with all his considerable strength.

A loud cracking pop resounded through the cavern as the Master felt the Slayer's shoulder dislocate under his wrath. She cried out loudly and tears of pain were squeezed out from eyes suddenly clenched shut. Letting go of her now limp limb, the Master grabbed the Slayer by the neck and lifted her off the ground. Her uninjured arm effortlessly restrained, she wriggled in the Master's grasp, her dangling legs kicking out. All in vain.

As he choked the life out of the Slayer, the Master began considering his actions. Was it really best to kill her now? He would need the blood of a Slayer to fulfill the prophecy of his ascension three months hence. Wouldn't it be better to face the devil you know when the time comes?

No, he decided. If he spared this Slayer now, she would never return, knowing that it would mean her death. If he killed her, the next Chosen One would likely be sent to stop him by the Council. He _was_ one of the biggest threats they had faced in centuries. So he would have his Slayer's blood anyway.

"So long, Slayer," he said to her almost sadly. "You were almost a worthy opponent. A pity you had to leave so soon," And he tightened his grip on her throat. Her struggles were dying down and her eyes nearly closed as oblivion beckoned her closer.

His contemplations were interrupted when he sensed a presence behind him. A human presence. The Master had been so focused on defeating the Slayer and pondering her fate that the heartbeat of the new arrival had gone unnoticed. Just as he was about to turn his head to see who had dared to interrupt him, the Master felt a hundred eighty pounds of weight fall upon his shoulders and back.

  
  
  


Buffy's second scream, with an obvious note of pain to it, spurred Xander on. He sprinted down the tunnel, turning left at the final fork in the path. The scream was still reverberating in that direction. Finally, he reached the brightly lit entrance to the cavern and stopped in his tracks.

Xander had never actually seen the Master first hand before. There had been a few sketches of him in Giles' Watcher Diaries from the few people that escaped him alive. They really didn't do him justice.

Standing well over Xander's nearly six feet, the Master's muscled frame combined with his perpetual demonic scowl made him look like he had risen straight from the bowels of hell itself. Which was accurate enough, Xander thought. And right now, he held Buffy, _his_ Buffy at his mercy, strangling her with his taloned hand.

No way in Hell.

Looking around for some weapon to use against the Master was futile. This was a vampire's lair, after all. Not much wood to be found. There was a big cross sticking up in one corner of the room, but it looked like it was solidly connected to the ground. Plus, he already had a cross. His eyes fell on the throne in the middle of the room.

It was a gruesome piece of furniture. The legs actually seemed to be made of human bones reinforced with stone or cement or something. The rest of it may have been similarly constructed, but lavish coverings hid its structure from view. The Master was standing several feet behind the glorified or maybe hellified would be a better word high chair.

The instant the plan formed in his head, Xander started running down the stairs to the lair below. There was no time to waste with second thoughts. Buffy was starting to look a little woozy...

Please don't see me, please don't see me, please don't see me... Xander repeated that thought over and over as he ran. If the Master just turned around, he was screwed. Fortunately, the mighty vampire didn't. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of running, Xander reached the foot of the throne and held the cross in his hand firmly.

Without losing stride, Xander jumped up on the seat. Then, straining himself and praying his momentum was enough to do it, he aimed his next stride for the top of the throne's back. He had an instant to silently rejoice as his right foot made the step before he heaved himself up, catapulting himself through the air until he landed squarely on the Master's back.

Xander was slightly surprised when his impact barely budged the master vampire. He had hoped to knock them both to the ground and thus make him lose his grip on Buffy. Good thing he had a plan B.

"Hey, pug-ugly! Guess who!?" Wrapping his left arm around the Master's neck tightly, he shoved his cross in the vampire's face with his right.

The Master roared, more in fury than pain, Xander guessed. He hadn't dropped Buffy immediately like any other vamp would have to claw at the offending holy relic burning into its face. The Master had enough wits about him to hurl the Slayer into the rock wall before going after the source of his pain.

Xander may have just done one stupid, reckless thing, but that didn't mean he wanted to stay on the path of stupidity now. If the Master got his hands on him, he was as good as dead. Just as the Master grabbed at the arm around his neck, Xander let go and slid down the vampire's back. When his feet hit the ground, Xander pushed forward with every ounce of strength he could muster, hoping to put some distance between himself and the sure-to-be-out-for-blood monster.

The Master staggered two steps. That's it. Two measly, pointless strides was all that Xander could budge him. The master vampire spun around, his furious face still smoldering a bit from the cross burn. Xander tried to retreat a few steps himself, but with amazing speed the Master stepped forward and swung a closed fist at the young man's chin.

As Xander's head snapped to the side and he felt himself flying through the air, he realized something. Spike, Angel, Olaf the Troll and all the other vampires and demons he'd been knocked around by in the past/future couldn't hold a candle to the wrath of a pissed-off Master. He actually blacked out in mid air, but was jolted awake when he banged his head on a rock as he landed. When Xander opened his eyes, his vision was swimming, nothing was clear. He couldn't even remember where he was for a moment.

The distinct taste of blood in his mouth reawoke his awareness of the situation. Buffy. Master. Got hit. Ow.

Xander sat himself up and blinked several times to clear his vision. When the twinkling stars finally vanished, he saw the Master approaching Buffy again. The Slayer wasn't moving and her eyes were closed. Xander prayed that she was playing possum, or just knocked out. The other possibility didn't bear thinking about.

Xander managed to bring himself to his feet before the Master reached his victim. "Hey!" he called, sending a spasm of pain through his jaw. "I'm still standing here! Bring it on, Living Dead!"

The Master turned and sneered at Xander's false bravado. "You have as long as it takes me to finish off the Slayer to get out of my sight. It would be well for you to save yourself."

"Sorry, Overbite. No can do. Made a promise to a lady," Xander said as he finally got his equilibrium under control and stopped wobbling on his feet. Xander wasn't sure if he'd ever actually made the promise out loud, but helping and protecting Buffy was something he tried his best to do anyway.

The Master had little taste for romantic chivalry such as that, apparently. He ignored Xander.

Frustrated, Xander picked a rock up from the ground and threw it at the master vampire, hitting him just below the shoulder blade. Irritated, the Master addressed him again. "Have you a death wish, boy!? I could kill you where you stand!"

All of a sudden, the answer came to Xander. How to possibly save Buffy, who still showed no signs of waking up anytime soon. There was only one problem. He probably wouldn't be alive to see it.

It was strange, almost, how quickly Xander came to a decision. How little he valued his life when compared to Buffy's. People always say they would die for those that they love. Xander wondered if they all would come through with so little internal protest. In the end, though, it came down to one undeniable, unshakable truth.

He would do anything for Buffy Summers.

Anything.

A calming smile spread across Xander's face. The lingering fear was gone, replaced by certainty that his choice was the right one. Xander responded, knowing exactly how the Master would react.

"Y'know, Darla said the exact same thing."

  
  
  


Silence. No noise outside the occasional crackling of the torches and the distant sound of fighting in the tunnel existed in the Master's lair. It was quite a different story inside the centuries-old resident of the cavern.

Darla ... his beloved childe. Gone for months now, but not from his mind. The Master had vowed revenge against her killer, but the raising and teaching of the Anointed had taken precedence over a blood feud. But now...

Now the pathetic worm who slew her has the audacity to confront _me_!? In my own lair!? Forgotten was the Slayer lying unconscious a few feet away from him, whose life he could take in a heartbeat. Forgotten was the long desired prophecy which would soon free him and wipe out the human plague on the surface. All that the Master saw was the smug face of Alexander Harris staring at him from across the cavern.

"You, you..." The Master tried to find the words to express his rapidly growing fury.

"What's a' matter, big guy? Cat got your tongue?"

The mocking words sent the Master into a towering rage. Bellowing out his anger, he leapt across the room to land five feet in front of Xander. "You impudent child! You dare mock me in my own chambers!?!?"

The Master was shocked that the boy opposing him was not shaking in terror. He was the Master! Killer of countless Slayers! Head of the most powerful vampiric family in the world! None stood against him and lived!

The infuriating youth was unruffled as he shrugged and answered. "Looks like it. Wanna step outside? I could mock you there if that's better for ya."

As his rage reached new heights, the Master finally gave into his bloodlust. He had originally planned to draw out Alexander Harris' death, as punishment for destroying Darla. But now, all he wanted to do was cause the insolent child as much pain as quickly as he could.

Raising his clawed hand high, the Master swiped it through the air, just wanting to make his enemy bleed. Xander dodged back, but couldn't avoid the slice entirely. Three talons ripped through his shirt, leaving a parallel trio of half-inch-deep cuts on his chest.

The Master attacked again. A crushing fist was sent into the boy's chest, followed by another. The vampire's supernaturally-enhanced hearing picked up the satisfying crunch of three ribs breaking. Xander was bent over by the injury and the Master viciously brought his knee up into the boy's face. When Xander straightened up after the impact, he fell backwards, nose bleeding profusely. Xander clutched at his chest and grimaced as he landed on his back, pain coming with every breath he took.

Seeing his foe defenseless and broken before him was familiar territory for the Master. It slightly calmed the raging fury coursing through him. Now he could see the advantages of prolonging this wretch's death. A wolfish smile came to the aged vampire's face. Yes. Quite enjoyable advantages indeed

  
  
  


_The Tunnel_

  
  
  


Angel buried his stake in the last vampire's chest and withdrew it before the creature crumbled to dust. When its death scream faded, only the heavy breathing of Jesse and Oz could be heard in the cramped corridor.

Angel had quickly disposed of one of the vampires when he'd jumped to the two humans' aid. Then he'd taken on another one while the boys teamed up on the other. They had backed it into the wall with their crosses and, after receiving a few bumps and bruises from the cornered vamp, staked it.

With all the minions just ashes covering the ground now, Angel ran off towards the Master's lair without another word.  
"Hey! Deadboy!? Where ya goin?" Jesse called.

Oz rolled his eyes. "Buffy? Xander? Mortal danger? Ringing any bells?

"Oh. Duh. Well, let's go, Oz-man. 'Once more unto the breach' and all that," Jesse said and started running after Angel.

Oz kept pace while looking over at the dark-haired boy beside him incredulously. Jesse caught his friend's stares.

"What? It's from MacBeth! And don't look at me like that. I'm not a complete illiterate you know!"

Oz just smirked as they ran on. He didn't see the weapon on the ground until his foot kicked it and it skittered across the rock floor. He looked down. A crossbow. He didn't have any ammunition for it, but another weapon couldn't hurt, could it? He picked it up while still racing along.

  
  
  


_The Master's Lair_

  
  
  


As Angel reached the end of the tunnel, he slowed to a cautious walk. Peering around the entrance, he was met with a sight that both horrified and, to his almost immediate disgust, pleased him.

Angel had never liked Xander much from the second he met the boy. Xander was overconfident, overly sarcastic, and didn't like vampires very much, even if they came with souls. When he'd learned that it was Xander that had killed Darla, he had been angered by that as well. Angel tried to distance himself from his demonic side, but the sire-childe bond was a strong connection. Their confrontation and his revelations of a night ago had not helped matters between them.

So when he saw Xander in blinding pain with the Master's foot pressing down on his chest, the dark part of his soul, the part he feared was forever corrupted and maligned by his demon half, laughed in malicious delight. Angel was just glad that the rest of him was sickened by that initial feeling.

Upon closer inspection, Angel cringed when he saw several digits on Xander's left hand, as well as his wrist were bent at horrible angles. One thing that the Master always enjoyed, Angel remembered, was physical torture. Breaking as many bones as possible before his victim passed out, then waiting for him to awake so the process could be continued. Fortunately, it looked like the torture session had only begun on Xander.

Angel heard footsteps behind him. A pair of them. His guess was proven right when Jesse and Oz rounded the corner. He immediately put his finger to his lips and the two boys got the message. They crept quietly the rest of the way to Angel's side.

When Jesse saw what was happening to his best friend, Angel had to grab him and smother his mouth with his hand to keep him quiet. Oz just looked on in quiet concern. The part-time guitarist mouthed a question. 'Buffy?'

Angel's eyes went wide. He'd actually forgotten about her when he'd seen the Master tormenting Xander. Snapping his head around to check the cavern once again, he craned his neck further around the entrance and saw the Slayer's body slumped against the wall. For a moment, he had the sinking feeling that she would never get up again. But then, after straining his hearing powers, he confirmed that there were two heartbeats in the room. Both sounded a bit thready.

Wait. If I can hear Buffy and Xander, does that mean-

"Come out here, Angelus, you cowardly cur. And bring your two meatbag friends with you." It was the Master.

Guess so Angel thought. He turned to the two boys, whose mouths had dropped open at the Master's command.

"You two get Buffy out of there, I'll get Xander," he said before walking into the cavern.

"Angelus..." the Master growled.

"I go by Angel nowadays," Angel corrected, walking down the steps and deeper into the lion's den. Jesse and Oz followed and, after gawking at the Master's horrible visage for a moment, darted off to help Buffy out.

The Master followed the two mortals with his eyes, glaring at them angrily. He didn't want the Slayer to go free, but he wanted vengeance for Darla's death more than another Slayer to add to his score. He turned back to Angel, now at the foot of the stairs. "You've come for the boy, I assume?"

Angel nodded gravely. "Let him go, and we all walk out of here alive. Or in our case, just walk out of here," he smiled thinly.

The Master laughed, a rumbling, throaty laugh that seemed to come straight from a lame B-movie. "You think I fear you, Angelus? You may have been the Scourge of Europe, but I, _I_ am the scourge of the humanity that you seem to have embraced so readily of late," the Master sneered. "Besides, this ... insect," he pushed his foot onto Xander's chest harder, eliciting a pained moan from him, "killed your sire. Does that mean nothing to you?"

Angel clenched his jaw as he fought down the sadistic urges his demon was encouraging. To honor his sire's death by joining in the murder of her killer. No. He wouldn't do it. Never again. Never again.

"I'm sure she deserved it," he said carefully.

The Master shook his head sadly. "My, how the mighty have fallen," He sighed melodramatically. "Very well. You may have the boy."

Stepping off Xander's chest and leaning down, the Master grabbed the injured boy by the hair and pulled him up into a kneeling position. He placed one clawed hand under Xander's chin while the other gripped the back of his head. The perfect arrangement to twist a mortal's head off.

"You can carry his dead body back to the surface."

Angel knew that he couldn't make it in time. The Master needed only to make one swift maneuver and Xander's neck would be broken. His last thought before the room erupted into violence again was that Buffy was going to be devastated.

THWAK!

  
  
  


Oz and Jesse bent down next to Buffy while the Master and Angel jawed at each other. There were several dark bruises forming on her arms and face, and that was just what they could see. Quickly checking her pulse and finding one, the boys grabbed Buffy's limp arms and swung them over their shoulders.

As they lifted, Buffy sandwiched between them, Jesse winced in pain. "Ow!" he hissed in a whisper. He pushed himself away from Buffy's side and pulled the offending pointy object out of Buffy's belt that he'd almost stabbed himself with. A crossbow bolt.

Oz looked from the bolt in Jesse's hand, to the empty crossbow in his hand, to the ancient vampire holding their friend hostage. He looked back to Jesse finally. "Gimme."

Jesse handed it over while Oz shifted all of Buffy's weight onto Jesse. It was a good thing she was such a tiny little thing, as Jesse's muffled curse showed that the position was awkward enough as it was. Pulling back the drawstring and locking it in place, Oz loaded the single bolt. Jesse raised an eyebrow at Oz's ease at using the weapon. "Hunting with the family?"

Oz shook his head. "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves." Jesse smiled and chuckled. He began ambling toward the entrance, carrying Buffy's unconscious form with him.

The crossbow ready, Oz aimed it at the Master. And not a second too soon. He saw the evil vampire pull Xander to his knees and grab his head in his taloned hands. Not hesitating a second longer, Oz squeezed the trigger.

THWAK!

  
  
  


A lot happened in the second after the crossbow was fired. The Master, with his phenomenal reflexes, managed to get a hand up and catch the arrow speeding toward him.

But that meant letting go of Xander's head, and the young man used his short stint of freedom well. Though weak from blood loss and mind-numbing pain, he was able to pitch himself forward, so that he landed on his front. This aggravated his broken ribs, but it got him away from the Master for a moment.

A moment was all the time that Angel needed. The souled vampire dashed forward and jump kicked the Master over Xander's fallen body, putting all the power he could behind it. It sent the Master reeling backwards several steps. It was enough, because behind the Master was a pool of water filling in a crater. Why the Master would have that in his lair was beyond Angel's comprehension, but right now, it was more of a help than a curiosity. Staggering back over the lip, the Master fell in with a splash.

Moving quickly, Angel scooped up Xander and threw him over his shoulder. No time to worry about spinal damage. If they didn't get out of here now, he would definitely end up dead. Angel saw Oz drop the crossbow he had fired and run up to Jesse and Buffy. Slinging her other arm around his shoulder, the two boys made better time up the stairs.

A furious yell tore through the cavern as the Master pulled himself from the pool and ran to stop his enemies from escaping. But it was too late. As he reached the top of the steps, the five white hats were already beyond the magical barrier that prevented him from leaving.

Pounding the invisible barrier in a frenzy, the Master screamed in impotent fury. His enraged roars could still be heard resonating through the tunnel system when Angel, Jesse, and Oz carried their injured friends out of the subterranean maze twenty minutes later.

  
  
  


* * * * *


	8. Under Duress (2/2)

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.

  
  


* * * * *  


_10:45 PM_

_Treatment Room 213, Sunnydale Memorial Hospital _

  
  
  


For the second time in a few hours, Buffy returned to awareness unsure of where she was. When she remembered what she'd encountered the last time that happened, she opened her eyes wide and tried to push herself up.

The second part didn't work too well. Her right arm gave out under her weight and pain coursed through her upper body. Buffy hissed out her discomfort and winced. When the pain faded, her brain began processing her surroundings.

She was looking up at a panel of fluorescent lights on a white ceiling. Her head was resting on something soft, which she saw was a white pillow when she turned her head to the side. There was a machine on a cart next to her resting place, a single bed, she realized, with sterile white sheets and an equally white, thin blanket. The machine was a heart monitor, but it wasn't turned on. The only sound in the room was the quiet hum of the lights and the miscellaneous noises drifting in from the rest of the...

Hospital. Buffy's chest tightened and she started to feel very uncomfortable. She hated hospitals. Ever since her cousin had died in one while she'd sat at her bedside, Buffy had avoided the places whenever possible. Her first instinct was to get out of there and she tried to follow up on it. The shooting pain in her arm foiled her again. In fact, her whole body seemed to be in the grip of an all-encompassing dull ache.

Was that ... not a nightmare? Buffy wondered. She remembered fighting the Master again and losing, again, but that had happened with disturbing frequency over the past few months. In her dreams, that is. Her mind was still a bit fuzzy and she felt a large bump on the back of her head when she rubbed it with her uninjured left arm. If it wasn't a nightmare, how did she get away? The last thing she remembered was being knocked unconscious by the powerful vampire ... and a familiar voice. Buffy couldn't quite put her finger on whose.

The source of the answers to her questions suddenly came through the door. Rupert Giles, looking quite the worse for wear in his rumpled tweed, quickly made his way to his Slayer's side. He pulled a chair away from the wall and sat in it next to Buffy's bed. "Buffy, are you all right?"

"Sure, Giles," Buffy said groggily. "Y'know what would make me better? Not being here. So, as soon as I'm able to ... get up, could you get me out of here!?" She tried to sit up again but Giles pushed her back down.

"Buffy," he said firmly. "You've sustained a dislocated shoulder and a severe battering by a several hundred year old vampire. The doctors also fear you've suffered a mild concussion, so you're staying here at least overnight for observation."

Her body screamed to obey him, beating out her weary mind for the time being. She relaxed her tensed muscles slightly, but then looked at Giles apprehensively. "You-you mean ... I really was ... the Master, he..." she trailed off tremulously. Giles nodded reluctantly after a second. "Then how, how did I get out?"

A pained expression crossed Giles' face and he averted his eyes from Buffy. A pinprick of dread slowly formed and started expanding in the pit of Buffy's stomach. "Giles..."

"After we found out that you were heading down to the Master's Lair," Giles began. Buffy couldn't remember ever deciding to go face the Master. Maybe she did have a concussion. "Xander, Angel, Jesse and Oz followed you down. They encountered a group of vampires before they could reach you. Xander was able to break away from the fight and he entered the Master's lair to help you ... alone."

She couldn't breathe. It was like her brain had decided to forego that function to focus on the terrible implications of what Giles was saying. Her heart started beating faster as the feeling of dread took over. "G-Giles," Buffy said, unable to keep her voice from quivering. "Tell me that Xander is OK. Tell me that he's going to walk through that door in a second, smile at me and make a bad joke. Tell me that he's not..." Her voice faded throughout her plea, until it disappeared entirely at the end.

Tears spilled out of her eyes when Giles didn't respond immediately and reassure her that everything was fine. "He's-he's in intensive care. They're, um, they're checking him for internal bleeding. The Master did quite a number on him, I'm told. He has ... several broken ribs and-and many of the bones in his left arm have been, um, rather snapped. There-there may also be head trauma and he-he's lost quite a bit of blood. The doctors will be able to tell us more soon."

Despair washed over Buffy in waves. She clenched her watery eyes shut, trying to dispel the ghastly images her mind was conjuring up. Of Xander, bloodied and beaten, fighting for his life.

Oh God, it should have been me. It should have been me! I'm the one who went down there in the first place! ... Why the hell did I go down there in the first place!?

"Why did I go down there in the first place!?" Buffy vocalized her thought. 

Giles blinked in surprise and leaned back in the chair. "You mean ... you don't remember?"

Buffy shook her head, tears still filling her wide eyes. "No. I-I don't ... the last thing I remember was-was the Master and-and Xander. I guess that's who that was." She mumbled the last to herself.

Giles was starting to look more nervous by the second. "Um, what-what _is_ the last thing you remember, be-before the Master?"

Buffy frowned as she wracked her brain for the answer to that question. Much of her memories of the last day seemed to be hidden in a fog. Must be the concussion, she rationalized. The last thing she recalled really clearly was...

"The zoo. Me and Xand were fighting that zookeeper guy, and then..." she crinkled her forehead. "it's-it's all a blur."

"Oh. Oh dear. You-you really don't remember?" Buffy shook her head and Giles sighed, in a way that seemed to convey both frustration and relief at the same time. "Well. Um, the-the reason I suspect you can't recall anything of the past day is-is because..." Giles paused and looked Buffy in the eyes. "You were possessed, Buffy."

"What!?" Buffy demanded loudly. She wanted to be angry at ... something, anything. She didn't want the hollow, despondent feeling Xander being near death caused in her. "What, how-how did that happen!?"

"The hyena spirit, Buffy. It-it brought out your most, um, primal ... urges, and made..." Giles stopped as he considered his next words. Glasses off. Wipe, wipe, wipe.

The sinking feeling had returned in Buffy after its brief vacation. What had happened? Had she... What had she done? "Giles?" she asked timidly.

She heard her inquiry echoed a moment later by a voice in the hallway. "Giles!?" The voice was Willow's and had a touch of excitement to it. The red head's voice got louder as she approached the room. "Giles! He's gonna be OK! The doctor said-" Willow cut herself off when she appeared in the doorway and saw Buffy looking expectantly at her. A wide-eyed look of fear crossed the girl's face.

Buffy had seen that look from Willow before. Outside her house this morning when...

Buffy's good hand sprang to cover her mouth and her suddenly trembling lips. She could feel a cry of anguish building in her throat. Matching Willow's face now with one of her fuzzy possession memories seemed to clear the fog in her mind, revealing her actions in damning clarity.

Sobs wracked Buffy's lithe body as the tears flowed freely now. She remembered. Everything. Everything she did. Everything she felt. Everything she wanted to do. Everything!

Giles' efforts to calm and soothe her went unheard. Buffy withdrew into herself, needing to come to terms with her misdeeds, intentional or not. Dropping herself into a pit of misery, she let her memories assault her, letting her self-loathing grow by leaps and bounds.

Throwing the zookeeper to his death. "Oh God." Wanting to hurt, wanting to _kill_ Willow. "Oh God." Trying to _rape_ her boyfriend. "Oh God." Wanting to rip Oz's head off when he tried to stop her. "Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God..." Buffy continued her litany between sobs and whimpers, just wanting the world to end so she would never have to face the antipathy of her friends and have to lose almost everything she cared about in the world.

  
  
  


* * * * *

  
  
  


_March 7, 1997_

_2:30 AM_

_OR Waiting Room, Sunnydale Memorial Hospital_

  
  
  


Jesse was tired. Tired but not. Wide awake, actually. Also jittery. Caffeine does that to people. And it gives you energy. Lots and lots of excess energy. How do ya work it off? Ya gotta pace. Back and forth and back and forth and...

He threw the empty Styrofoam cup, once filled with what passed for coffee in the hospital, into the garbage can. That was number seven for tonight. Each with two packets of Sugar Twin for that extra need-to-stay-awake-at-all-costs, even-at-the-expense-of-my-pancreas kick. Because there was no way he was going to sleep before Amy woke up. I probably couldn't even if I didn't have a load of liquid energy in my system

Jesse had been worried enough when he and his compadres had arrived at the hospital, what with the condition Xander and Buffy were in. Xander more so, naturally. Jesse couldn't seem to shake the conviction that this whole mess was at least partially the Slayer's fault. They had been surprised to find Giles and Willow there waiting for them. At first, Jesse thought the two had just made a good guess that the hospital was where they'd be headed. The walkie-talkies had gotten busted during the fight (they didn't call them 'cheap' for nothing), so they hadn't been able to inform the researching trio of what had happened in the Master's lair.

That was when he'd noticed Amy's absence. Followed soon by Giles explaining that Amy had not woken up after she'd cast the spell. Then there were the reassurances that she would wake up when her body had recovered the spiritual strength expended during the banishment of the hyena spirit.

Jesse had barely heard any of that, though. He'd pretty much zoned out into his own terrified little world after 'Amy won't wake up'.

Trying to get in to see her immediately, Jesse had been stopped by the doctor handling her case. Visiting hours were over, she said. You can see her in the morning, she said. He'd fought the doctor on that tooth and nail, but she'd gotten her way by being firm and calm, in the way that doctors always are toward near-hysterical family members. She told him that she'd let him know the minute Amy's condition changed.

So, in the wee hours of the morning, Jesse kept a constant vigil in the waiting room down the hall from Amy's little curtained-off cubicle. He left only when he was on the verge of zonking out, to get more coffee to keep himself awake.

At least Xander is gonna be OK Jesse turned his mind from his girlfriend to his best friend as he walked down the hallway to the waiting room again. Xander had passed out over Angel's shoulder on the run over, probably from a mixture of loss of blood and overwhelming pain. When they'd delivered him to the hospital staff, the orderlies had dumped him on a stretcher and wheeled him away quickly, spouting off medical acronyms and lingo that Jesse didn't understand. But they were saying it in that quick, clipped way that the docs on "ER" did when faced with a real, life-or-death situation.

About an hour after Xander had been admitted, one of the doctors had come out to tell them the relatively good news. There was no internal bleeding caused by the pummeling he'd incurred and no other life-threatening injuries. Just the dozen or so broken bones and the loss of a pint and a half of blood through a nicked vein in Xander's chest. All superficial, but no less painful.

Jesse turned the corner in the hallway, almost bumping into a cart pushed by an orderly past him. Caffeine could only do so much before fatigue started to win the war. Trying to shake out the cobwebs forming again in his head, Jesse caught sight of a new occupant in the otherwise empty waiting room. Though his vision was a little strained, there could be no mistaking the blond girl with her arm in a sling, slouching forward in her seat for anyone but Buffy.

The Slayer looked up slowly at Jesse, who had slowed down himself when he saw her. When she recognized him, she quickly averted her eyes toward the floor and seemed to tense up.

Jesse was also nervous. Not from any fear that one or the other of Buffy's alter-egos from the day before would show themselves. The frail, discouraged girl sitting there hardly resembled those fierce and frightening aspects. No, he was worried about what he was going to do or say with Buffy in the same room. Hours of enforced wakefulness had probably eaten away at his tactfulness and he had promised Xander he wouldn't blow up at the blond Slayer.

Gingerly, Jesse sat down on the hard, plastic chair two seats away from Buffy's. He leaned his head back and exhaled a long breath. When he blinked, his eyelids fought to stay closed, to let the need for rest take over. It would be a good way to avoid any slips-of-the-tongue around Buffy, his pro-sleep side argued.

No. Gotta stay awake. Gotta see Amy when she wakes up He used the sides of his fists to wipe the sleep out of his eyes.

"How are they?" A small, ragged voice next to him asked. 

Well, that's easy enough Jesse thought. Nice, straightforward answer Without shifting his eyes away from the ceiling, Jesse replied. "No change. Xander's still got a bunch of broken bones and Amy's still doing a fairly good imitation of a vegetable." Oops. Oh, tact, wherefore art thou?

Jesse could almost feel Buffy sink back further into her chair. Damage control time. Change the subject, change the subject! "So ... dislocated shoulder, huh? That's gotta suck." Buffy didn't respond. "Well, look at the bright side. You'll have an excuse for not doing homework for a while, right?" Are these words actually coming out of my mouth? I'm usually funnier

"Two days."

"Huh?" Jesse asked, confused.

"It's already been reset in its socket. The doctor said it'll be a week before I can take off the sling, but with my super snazzy healing, Giles says it should only take about two days," Buffy said mechanically. Her voice was choked with emotion when she continued. "And X-Xander will be lucky to walk out of here in two weeks." Then, in a tiny, forlorn voice, she lamented, "It's not fair. Should have been..."

For the first time he'd seen her since he returned to the room, Jesse really looked at Buffy. The bruises that had dotted her body in the Master's lair were fading already, but the improvements ended there. Her blond locks were stringy and unkempt, hanging loosely around her pale face. Her normally open and confident posture was replaced by a demoralized and brooding one. Most telling of all were her eyes. A long period of crying was evidenced by the red puffiness around them and a few bloodshot corneal veins. The blue-green pupils were dulled, the lively sparkle formerly residing there missing. Put simply, Buffy looked like death warmed over, but not very much.

When Buffy felt his eyes on her, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, turning her head marginally. Though their gazes only met for a second before Buffy stared forward at nothing again, Jesse could clearly read the emotion in her pained depths.

Fear. She's afraid? Of me? What does she think I'm gonna do, punch her out? Jesse found any lingering resentment of the Slayer quickly fading away. She was completely blaming herself. She didn't need others pointing fingers at her.

Jesse scooted over to sit right next to Buffy and saw her flinch at his movement, but quickly returned to her resigned slouch. If she thought Jesse was going to rip into her, she didn't look like she wanted to stop him. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

"Buffy," he said softly. "This isn't your fault."

"Yes it is," she immediately countered matter-of-factly.

"No, it's not."

"_Yes_, it is," she insisted, more adamantly this time and with a touch of anger.

"No, it's - you know, we could do this all night. Or morning, whatever. Time doesn't mean as much when you're this buzzed," Jesse smirked at his jest, but it turned into a frown when he got no reaction from the Slayer. "Buffy, just look at yourself," he ordered seriously, gesturing to the other side of the room. Buffy hesitantly lifted herself out of her remorseful lethargy long enough to look up.

At the reflection in the mirror across the aisle, hanging between two rows of waiting room chairs and above an end table with year-old magazines piled neatly on it. Her expression didn't change as she stared at her optically-reversed counterpart on the other side of the reflective glass.

"Does that look like a rabid, murderous, sex-crazed hyena girl?" Jesse asked. "Or how 'bout emotionless, kamikaze-wannabe Slayer girl? Cuz you don't look a thing like them." Buffy simply shook her head, resuming her staring-at-the-floor marathon. "Buffy, you were possessed. Now, admittedly, I'm not the guy to talk to about the Hellmouthy stuff that goes on in this hellhole of a town. That's what we got the G-Man for. But from the many, many words Giles has said in the last day and a half, I know that it wasn't the Buffy we know doing all that stuff. It wasn't you."

"Yes, it was!" Buffy suddenly exclaimed in frustration, startling Jesse back in his seat. More subdued, she elaborated. "Why do you think I went after Willow? Because she wants Xander. She wants Xander and I want Xander and-and I wanted to stop her from getting him. So I tried to kill her. Because I wanted her out of the way. I _wanted_ to kill her!" she cried. Jesse was very glad that there was no one else in the vicinity hearing Buffy admit to premeditated murder.

"Buffy, before yesterday, did you have any sudden urges to snuff Willow out? Or give Xander a happy? Wait! Don't answer that second one. Just for my own peace of mind," Jesse felt a sense of accomplishment when Buffy's frown improved into a tight-lipped neutral expression. "The point is, if any part of you actually wanted to do those things, it was the weird sadistic part that's in all of us. The part that when you tell the idiot who poured salt in your sugar that you're 'gonna kill him', actually wants to. It's what separates us from the animals, including the hyenas, that we can decide not to do that. And that separation is the reason why this is not your fault." Jesse smiled to himself. Woah. I actually put together a sensible explanation. Color me brilliant. I think ... maybe

"Wow," Buffy said. "That was deep." He couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not, but at least she'd gotten a reaction out of her, instead of the tacit disagreement silence would have indicated.

"Really? Cuz I'm pretty sure I just confused myself there," Jesse said, scratching his head. When the corner of her mouth curved up about half an inch, Jesse smiled widely and continued. "When all is said and done here, Buff, you're going to have the same friends you always did. No one is going to blame you," He sat back in his seat and crossed his arms across his chest. "That is, unless, you decide to keep blaming yourself."

Buffy stayed quiet this time, but it was a contemplative silence, as if she was going over his words in her head. She didn't have time to respond before Jesse's attention was drawn by a female doctor in a white coat entering the waiting room. The boy stood up immediately and approached her and Buffy looked up from her seat.

"Is she awake? Is she all right? Can I see her? You said I could see her!" Jesse rambled quickly, not letting the woman get a word in edgewise. She halted his stream of questions by raising a hand.

"Yes, she's awake," the doctor confirmed. "And surprising lucid. She doesn't seem to have suffered an ill-effects from her ... brief catatonia. And yes, you can see her for ten minutes, but that's all until visiting hours tomorrow morning."

Jesse nodded hastily and started to walk away when he remembered the other blond girl that he was concerned about tonight. Much as he wanted to see Amy awake and well with his own eyes, he couldn't just leave Buffy there without another thought. Jesse turned back to the blond Slayer. "Buffy, I-"

"It's OK," she said with a small, but genuine, smile. "Go see Amy. And tell her ... thank you from me."

Jesse grinned back at her. "All righty. Just remember: not your fault, don't blame yourself and, uh ... 'don't worry, be happy,'" he finished with a little dance step. Buffy looked down and tried to hide the growing smile of her own. "That's the spirit! Be back in a minute." With that, Jesse hurried off after the doctor, thoughts of Amy returning to his head.

  
  
  


_Rm 298, SMH_

  
  
  


I wish I had a bed with reclining controls. That'd be cool Amy thought as she lifted herself up to a seating position, leaning back against the wall. And more comfortable too No amount of pillow rearranging cushioned her stiff back enough to dull the ache. The bed wasn't particularly hard or comfortless, but magic-induced sleep apparently kept you from tossing and turning. Laying in one position for hours on end was very ... crampy.

She had just adjusted herself into a semi-cushy pose when she was surprised by her boyfriend barreling in through the door. His eyes were comically wide and his brown hair looked like it hadn't seen a comb in a good long while. Amy tried to stifle her snickering with her hand, but Jesse's over-enthusiasm made her crack up into laughter.

Jesse was mock-scowling at her by the time her giggle-fit had died down. "You better be laughing _with_ me, woman," he said while walking over to her bedside and sat there. He leaned in to give her a kiss.

Normally, Amy let Jesse have his fun and call her 'woman' or 'babe' and still let him have his sugar. But now, she wanted to have her own fun. She leaned back away from his encroaching lips. "But we're in a public place, 'man'," she said with a smile.

Jesse's mouth dropped open in shock. "What!? Are we still on that? You didn't say anything about cutting me off!" He shook his head. "You are a cruel, cruel woman, Amy Madison."

Amy moaned playfully. "Oh, I'm sorry. OK, you can have some of the good stuff," she said and bent forward to touch her lips to his.

She'd only wanted to give him a quick peck, but found herself being pulled into a longer, deeper kiss when Jesse's hand gently held her head in place. Not that she was about to complain. When they ended their liplock after several seconds, Jesse stared into Amy's eyes. "I'm so glad you're OK," he said softly, his hand now cupping her cheek.

Amy's face, already flushed from the kiss, reddened further, but this time from a rush of affection instead of hormones. He acted like a neanderthal at times, but Jesse could be so sweet and caring at others. She smiled contentedly as her hand reached up and found his on her face. Their fingers had become intertwined by the time their hands were lowered to the bed.

In an instant, Casanova was replaced by Costello as Jesse's grin widened. "I knew you couldn't live without some quality Jesse-lovin'." Of course, the response to that was a smack on the shoulder from Amy.

"You're so full of yourself!" she claimed with laughter in her voice. The laughter died when she remembered that she was in the hospital and some very serious things had happened that night. "Oh! What happened with Buffy? Is she all right? I think my spell worked."

Jesse's grin disappeared. "Well, everyone's alive. Except for Angel, but he's a special case." The smirk returned momentarily. "Buffy's Buffy again, thanks to you. Did I mention that you are never, ever doing that again? Cuz I'm pretty sure I meant to," he sighed. "Willow's off trying not to sit where she got her tetanus shot and Xander..." he trailed off and swallowed nervously. "Xander's in intensive care."

"What happened?"

"Well, the Xand-man, like the stupid, brave doof that he is, distracted the Master long enough for us to get Buffy out of there. That guy is in a thundering need of plastic surgery, by the way."

"Xander!?" Amy asked, fearing the worst. Did he get his face ripped off or something?

"What? No! The Master. Guy looks like a bat on steroids," Amy chuckled, despite the situation. "Anyway, Xander got pretty badly beat up. Broken wrist, ribs, but that's the worst of it." He paused. "Buffy's not taking it well."

Amy frowned sadly. "Well, her boyfriend is really hurt..."

"No, no," Jesse corrected. "I mean, she's not taking it well like 'oh my god it's all my fault, where's a good hole I can stick my head in?'"

"Oh. Ooooh," Realization dawned after Amy interpreted what Jesse was trying to say. "Do you think she's guilty about me pulling a Sleeping Beauty act, too?"

Jesse raised an eyebrow and smirked mirthfully. "Now who's at the center of the universe?" Amy rolled her eyes and was about to swat him again when Jesse answered. "But, yeah. I'm sure that'll be the first thing on her mind when she sees you."

"Well, then I guess I'll have to have a talk with her later, when I'm less bed-ridden," Amy smiled and her boyfriend grinned back approvingly. Taking Jesse's hand in hers again, Amy sank back into her bed, soaking in his comforting presence while he rambled on about everything and nothing.

  
  
  


_The Waiting Room_

  
  
  


As soon as Jesse was had left the room to see Amy, Buffy slouched back in her seat. He had cheered her up temporarily, but the hopelessness had quickly seeped back into her current mood.

Jesse forgiving her was all well and good, but she hadn't actually done anything to him directly. Willow and Xander were different stories all together. Buffy was sure they wouldn't forgive her, despite Jesse's predictions. And once Xander breaks up with me and Willow doesn't want anything to do with me, will Jesse hang out with me? Not likely

Buffy's sadness was intensified by a feeling of deja vu. Her friends were going to abandon her, just like they did in Hemery. Only this time, there was no one to blame but herself and these friendships were the best thing that had ever happened to her, not like the plastic, meaningless relationships she'd had in LA. She had so much more to lose now.

"Buffy?" a masculine voice in front of her asked.

The blond girl jerked her head up in surprise. Her eyes were bleary again from the tears which had again started to build up under her closed eyelids, so it took a moment for Buffy to see that it was Sunnydale's resident vampire with a soul, Angel. Buffy hastily wiped at her eyes with her wrist, smearing the wetness on the too-long sleeve of the sweater she wore, borrowed from Amy's gym bag so that the Slayer could walk around the building in something other than a thin hospital gown. She had broken down once in front of Giles, but she didn't want to again. Crying couldn't bring back her broken friendships. Nothing could.

"Angel," she said, hating the tremble in her voice as she spoke. She tried clearing her throat to eliminate it. "Um, hi."

"Hi," the vampire replied. He stared down at her worriedly. "How are you doing?"

"How do you think I am?" Buffy answered sharply, annoyed at the question that had such an obvious answer.

Angel looked down at his feet, ashamed. "Yeah, um, sorry. Stupid question," he apologized and started to walk away from her.

Buffy immediately regretted her outburst. God! What am I doing? _Trying_ to make everyone hate me? She stood up as quickly as her sleep-deprived body would allow. "Angel, wait!" she called. The souled vampire stopped and turned around. "I-I'm sorry I snapped at you like that. I'm just ... having a monstrously bad day."

Angel seemed to take in her less-than-picturesque appearance for a moment and nodded slowly. "I can understand that."

Sighing heavily, Buffy dropped herself gracelessly down into her seat. She noticed Angel clutching a brown paper bag in his left hand as he stood there uncertainly. Only hospital sounds permeated the air, as neither Slayer or vampire seemed willing or comfortable enough to speak to the other. 

"So, what's in the bag?" Buffy asked, trying to break the silence. "Raid the blood bank?"

The paper bag rustled as the vampire lifted and glanced down at it. He seemed embarrassed by his enforced dietary habit. "Um, yeah. I-I usually just get animal blood from the butcher's shop, but I was here already and human blood is more, uh..."

"Nummy?" Buffy finished for him, looking vaguely repulsed.

"It ... holds me over longer," Angel amended reluctantly. They lapsed back into uneasy silence. Angel uncomfortably shifted his weight from one leg to the other.

"You're not one for the 'small talk with friends' thing are you?" Buffy asked, slightly amused. "It's just 'here's the bad guy of the month, go slay 'em.'"

"I haven't had much experience with the 'small talk' thing in a few ... hundred years. Or the ... friend thing, for that matter."

Buffy frowned sadly. "Well, I'm in the market for some new friends. Since I tried to kill the last ones." She seemed to deflate as she said the words.

Angel hesitantly stepped closer to the distraught Slayer. "I think you're making too much of this, Buffy."

The Slayer snorted derisively. "I think attempted murder is a pretty good friendship killer. I thought _you'd_ know that."

Angel looked mildly stung by Buffy's words, but did not back down. "Compared to the things I've done in the past, Buffy, what you did is a drop in the bucket. I killed thousands. Tortured them. Physically ... mentally ... spiritually. It wasn't enough just to feed. Any vampire could do that. For me, the pleasure was in the chase. To rip my victim's lives apart first and practically taste their despair when the game ended..."

"I'm starting to reconsider the you-as-a-friend assumption," Buffy said, glaring with open disgust at Angel, her melancholy mood chased away by the vampire's grisly monologue.

Angel pressed on, undeterred by Buffy's anger. "I killed, I maimed, I committed acts of sheer malevolence and yet you all ... well, maybe 'accept' is too strong a word, but you trust me enough to help you when the chips are down. If your friends can trust me, after everything I've done, then I don't see how they could do any different by you."

Buffy scowled grumpily as she sat back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her. "The difference, Angel," she retorted, "is that you did all those things to people we never even met, people who have been dead for over a hundred years. Giles is the history buff here. The rest of us are teenagers who have trouble caring what happened last month. To us you're just the irritating guy in black who pops by every once in a while to give cryptic advice and just happens to be a big fangy teddy bear. Besides, you've never done anything to them. I have."

The heavy silence resumed for a few moments before the ensouled vampire broke it again with a startling revelation. "I did to Xander."

Buffy's head snapped up to face Angel. "What!?" She shot to her feet with her trademark quickness and dexterity, a spark of fire returning her eyes in the form of anger. "What did you do to him!?" She demanded loudly.

Her arm was in a sling, her eyes were rimmed in red and there was a slight wobble to her stance, but Angel still took a step back from Buffy out of a self-preservatory instinct. He held out his hands in appeasement to the upset vampire slayer. "I-I don't mean like that." When it appeared that Buffy was not about to pounce on him, sling or no sling, he continued. "Xander told me that in _his_ time, I ... lost my soul. That I did ... terrible things to him and his friends ... to you, before it was all over. Things may not have happened that way this time, but you can't just turn off that animosity. But he still came to me for help when you were in danger."

Buffy's posture had relaxed somewhat during Angel's exposition, but she was still glaring at the vampire. "So? That doesn't mean Xander likes you. He puts up with you. He went to you because he didn't have a choice."

The right corner of Angel's mouth quirked up into a smirk. "Oh, I know Xander doesn't like me. Just last night he told me he'd sooner stake me than look at me," he moved forward again to emphasize his next point. "And what does that say about Xander's feelings for you when he gets help from someone he hates to save you from one of the most powerful demons in the world?"

Buffy wanted to ignore him. Her stubborn side demanded it. Xander _would_ hate her, just like she was starting to hate herself. A part of her, though, wanted desperately to believe that Xander would forgive her, that he could find it in his heart to give her another chance.

God, I want another chance Buffy admitted to herself. Things had been going so well between her and Xander before ... just a day before. It had seemed like a month. Buffy missed his ready smile, his strong yet tender embrace, the way his kisses were so soft and also so passionate at the same time that it made her stomach flutter. She didn't want that to end. She wanted more. Not more like what hyena-her had in mind a day before. Just ... more of Xander.

"I hope so," Buffy finally said in a subdued voice. It was more an answer to her own internal desires than Angel's question, but it did the job for both. She sighed. "Well, thanks for the pep talk. I'll file it away with all the others." She returned to her seat, then noticed that Angel was still standing there, looking somewhat uncertain. "Thank you," she said sincerely.

"You're-you're welcome," he replied, in a way that indicated he probably wasn't thanked very often. His powers of conversation apparently tapped dry for the night, Angel turned and walked away.

As Buffy watched the vampire walk away, she heard footsteps approaching from the other direction. She turned her head and saw Jesse returning, a much lighter mood firmly in place. "What did corpse-boy want?" he asked, sitting down.

She looked back the way Angel had exited when she responded. "Same as everyone. He wanted to know how poor, pathetic Buffy was doing after almost getting her boyfriend, probably soon to be ex-, killed. It was a lot like the your version, only with images unsuitable for younger children and several awkward pauses. In fact..." Buffy stopped talking when she noticed Jesse wasn't listening anymore. His head was tilted back, his eyes closed and a quiet snoring resonated in the top of his throat.

Deciding that she'd wallowed in self-pity enough for one day, Buffy followed his lead, leaning her head back and shutting her heavy eyelids. As she drifted off, Buffy hoped and prayed that no nightmares would come this time. She'd had enough of those for one day, too.

  
  
  


* * * * *

  
  
  


_9:15 AM_

_Sunnydale Memorial Hospital_

  
  
  


The hallway seemed impossibly long as Buffy made the trek down it. If it hadn't been for the bright atmosphere around her, she might've mistaken it for the long corridor that death row inmates traveled on the way to meet their fates. Buffy's mood certainly paralleled that analogy.

Xander wanted to see her. That fact terrified and thrilled her, corresponding to the two attitudes that were vying for primacy. 'Scared of rejection' vs. 'hope for forgiveness'. The former was currently beating the crap out of the latter. Hence her present disposition.

With life-threatening injuries ruled out, Xander had been transferred out of the ICU and into the General Medical Wing with the rest of the broken-boned and superficially injured patients. Buffy herself had been checked over one last time after she'd woken up and the doctors concluded that she probably wouldn't have any permanent head damage. That would have been a great relief to Buffy if she hadn't been torturing herself over Xander's condition at the time. He _did_ have a concussion, it turned out. A minor one, but it was one more tick in Buffy's 'Xander will hate me' column.

It took an eternity to reach the room the nurse had directed her to and she hesitated beside the doorway. To the room where she was about to meet her fate. Geez, a bit overdramatic dontcha think? It's not like I'm facing the end of the world here. Been there, done that. But then why am I so scared?

All throughout her dating years back in LA, Buffy had been the one to call the shots. The guys were always falling all over themselves to get in her good graces. Being at the top of the social ladder had its perks. She chose whoever she wanted to go out with and ended the 'relationship', if something so shallow could be called that, whenever it suited her. That use-and-discard approach was tossed out when Buffy got her Slayer-induced attitude-adjustment. Between then and moving to Sunnydale she'd had a grand total of one boyfriend and even then she had been the one to break it off.

Then came Xander. The first guy Buffy had _really_ wanted, the first one she'd actually actively pursued. And in the end, it turned out that he wanted to be with her too. It had 'meant to be' stamped all over it. At least in the high school, 'till vacillating emotions do us part' kind of way. But something about their relationship made Buffy feel that it went deeper than that. Xander was, for the most part, past the raging hormones of adolescence and, as far as she knew, his eyes didn't wander when in the presence of other girls. Buffy herself was completely unfamiliar with the emotions that Xander brought out in her. She'd never been with a guy that made her feel so safe and warm and tingly inside at some times and so gut-wrenchingly nervous and vulnerable at others. Like now.

Steeling herself for the impending conversation, Buffy tried to put on a casual air and stepped into the doorway, only to almost fall apart again.

At first it seemed like every inch of Xander was covered in bandages and casts as Buffy's pessimistic view exaggerated what was really there. His whole left hand covered in plaster and bandages surrounding his chest showed the extent of his actual injuries.

Xander's head turned to the movement at the doorway and he grinned that grin that had never failed to wrangle a responding smile out of Buffy. It didn't work this time because Buffy was too busy shoveling more guilt onto the already large pile as she examined Xander's pale, immobilized body. "Hey Buffster!" he said, but immediately winced and grabbed at his head. "OK," he said in a quieter, almost raspy tone, "Item number 58 on the 'hurts like hell' list: talking too loud."

Buffy all but ran to Xander's bedside. "Xander! Are you OK? Please be OK! Oh God it's all my fault. Your-your chest and your arm and yo-your head and its all because of me and-and," she sniffed as tears started coming to her eyes again. "if I-I hadn't gone you w-wouldn't be so-so hurt and in pain and it's all my fault and-" She was abruptly cut off by Xander grabbing her arm not in a sling with his hand not in a cast.

"Buffy, calm down!" he said as loudly as he could without causing himself too much pain. "You're hyperventilating. And babbling, which is supposed to be Willow's gig." His attempt at lightening the mood fell flat as Buffy was just reminded that Xander wasn't the only one she had hurt. The Slayer started sobbing and Xander wasn't in any condition to physically comfort her, so he tugged her toward the chair beside his bed and commanded, "Buffy, sit down." Buffy plopped herself down and reigned in her weeping, encouraged by Xander's gentle shushing and hand-rubbing. When she finally worked up the nerve to look Xander in the eyes, her misery was still plainly written on her face

"I'm so sorry, Xan," she apologized softly. "I'm sorry for-for hurting Willow. I'm sorry for trying to..." Buffy couldn't say what she'd tried to do to her boyfriend. She just knew she would lose control again if she did. "I'm sorry for letting the Master hurt-hurt you so much. I'm, I'm just so sorry," her eyes started glistening again and she buried her face in her hand, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall again. How can just talking to him affect me so much? "How-how can you ever forgive me?"

There was a long pause after Buffy's teary plea and the Slayer immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion. He didn't forgive her. How could he? Everything I did was so horrible, hurt him and his friends so much. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve him She suddenly shivered, as a chill went up her spine. Which was strange, since the room had been warm a second ago...

"That's what you need, isn't it?" Buffy looked up after Xander's question. He was smiling sadly at her. "Forgiveness. Everyone's been telling you how this isn't your fault, but they haven't said they forgive you, have they? And you're thinking in the back of your mind that if they suddenly realize it was your fault, everything they've said about still wanting to be your friend and all will just evaporate into thin air," Xander meshed his fingers between Buffy's as he held her hand just as firmly and tenderly as his eyes held her watery gaze. "None of this was your fault, Buffy. But I know you well enough to know that Giles will streak naked through the middle of a football game before you fully accept that. So, I'm gonna say this once, and you're just gonna have to believe me. I forgive you, Buffy. I forgive you for what happened to Willow. And she will too. I forgive you for," he paused, and despite his pale pasty face, Buffy could see Xander blushed. She realized he was thinking about their 'close encounter'. "Well, there's not much to forgive between the two of us."

"But I-" Buffy protested, but was interrupted again by Xander.

"-Didn't do anything I haven't wanted to do for years now. If it had gone on for much longer, I would've, ah, well, there would have been some hurricane-like rockin' going on," he smirked, but there was no joy or mischief in the expression. "Or at least I would have tried to. I'd rather you hate me for taking advantage of you than hate yourself for doing the same to me. But since you need it, I forgive you for starting the ball rolling, so to speak. As for the Master ... that was my choice. He was about to kill you, Buffy. I couldn't just stand there and watch that. So, I provoked him, hoping you'd be safe until Angel showed up to rescue you."

"What about you?" Buffy wanted to know. "Don't you mean 'rescue us both'?"

"Actually, I-I kinda expected the Master to just rip my heart out or crush my skull between his hands." Buffy was horrified and it must have shown on her face, because Xander squeezed her hand tighter. "Hey, my choice, remember?"

"You chose to die?" Buffy asked incredulously. "After everything I did, you-you still cared enough to..."

"More than cared, Buffy. There isn't anything in the world I wouldn't give up for you because ... I love you, Buffy. I'm in love with you. I have been on and off all the time I've known you. Mostly on. You're the sunshine on my cloudy days, the light of my life, slayer of my heart," his happiness in his grin was infectious as it spread to every part of his face. "But enough with the clichéés. I love you, Buffy Summers, and I can forgive you anything," he finished and brought the back of her hand to his lips, kissing it reverently.

The tears were flowing in earnest down Buffy's face by the time Xander pressed his soft lips to her soft skin. And for the first time that day, they weren't tears of pain, or sorrow, or misery. The Slayer was completely and utterly overjoyed at Xander's declaration. Her heart soared free of the cold and unyielding grip self-doubt and fear had ensnared it in. She thought the good times with Xander before today were the best moments of her life, but they were nothing compared to right now. To be loved, completely, unconditionally was the most awesome feeling Buffy had ever experienced. "Oh, Xan. I-"

"Shh," he said and, having released her hand after pecking it, pressed two fingers against her lips, cutting off her reciprocation of his feelings. Buffy hadn't even been aware that she had been leaning forward while Xander was speaking. "You don't have to, Buffy. You've been on an emotional rollercoaster the last couple days ... and you're very relieved that things have come up roses. And I'm sorry if this seems a little outta line, but I don't want to hear ... those words from you until you're a little more mentally grounded," his eyes widened as he reconsidered that choice of words. "Uh, that is, um-"

"It's OK, Xan," Buffy said, wiping at her eyes again. "I'm still pretty spun, I think." If that was Xander's only condition to continuing their relationship, she would happily keep her mouth shut until doomsday. Buffy grinned broadly at her boyfriend. Still her boyfriend, she rejoiced. "I'm just ... the luckiest girl in the world."

Xander's lop-sided grin quickly reclaimed its rightful place across his lips. "Of course you are, milady. For you have the most handsome, brave and noble knight in all the land at your beck and call," he tried to bow, but couldn't move his head very far, so it was just barely a nod. "Would milady find it presumptuous for her handsome, brave and noble knight to request a kiss to reward him for his efforts in rescuing the fair maiden from the demonic heathens that threatened her?"

Buffy's grin was from ear to ear as she replied. "Not at all, handsome, brave and noble knight, sir." She leaned over and their lips met and danced over each other for several moments. It wasn't one of their passionate make-out smooches, but the simple and tender kiss left Buffy feeling completely content and more at ease than she'd been since waking up into a nightmare twelve hours ago.

The Slayer sat back in her chair again, the tension finally vacating her body. She stared into his eyes and he stared back, both smiling affectionately at each other and content to continue doing so until they were interrupted.

For now, all was right in the worlds of Buffy Summers and Xander Harris.

  
  
  


Foolish humans. So short-sighted. So willing to ensconce themselves in the unprotective bubble of companionship to ignore the harsh realities of their world. Even those that were aware of the darkness that threatened them, or presumed themselves to be aware, were not immune to that completely human of tendencies.

A presence permeated Xander Harris' hospital room, seeing all, hearing all, knowing all. It was not, however, able to make use of that knowledge. Already, it could feel its purchase in this dimension slipping away as the surge of inter-dimensional energy that allowed this sojourn began to fade. The Powers That Be would soon expel the presence back to its own dimension, where it was truly the master of all it surveyed.

The First Evil was assured, however, that that state of affairs would soon change.

The boy was weak. His love for the Slayer made him so. When the time came, he would not be able to make the sacrifices that the Powers believed him capable of. He would never risk his Slayer's life and it would be his downfall, as well as that of his world.

The Powers That Be must truly have been desperate to entrust the future of this most vital of realms to a mere child. They had expended so much of their power resetting this world just five years back in time while holding the boy's soul constant. He wasn't even one of their champions, like the Slayer or the ensouled vampire. It would be an accomplishment if he survived another few months, after the changes he had wrought on his world. Changes which were ill-considered and unpredictable in their effects.

The forthcoming apocalyptic prophecy would likely be Xander Harris' undoing. If the Slayer was killed, permanently, the portal commonly known on earth as the Hellmouth would be opened, linking this realm with that of the Old Ones, where the Powers That Be had banished the vast majority of the earth's demons thousands of millennia ago.

Although countless dimensions paralleled the one humanity called its own, only the domain of the Old Ones was connected in such a way that they could be joined indefinitely, without constant effort to keep a portal open. Other worlds could only temporarily sustain contact with earth before the constant shifting of energies that made up the walls between dimensions caused such weak links to collapse. At least, that was the case until the First discovered the Men'kali, languishing away on some distant world.

The Men'kali were a unique sect of demons. They possessed no supernatural strength, magics or physical attributes that gave them an advantage over their kindred demons. In fact, they were hunted mercilessly by the predators of their world. The one power they did possess was useless in the untamed expanses of their world, but was a prize beyond measure for the First. The Men'kali were essentially walking portals. They could open gates between dimensions almost at will, but did so rarely because most other worlds were just as dangerous, if not moreso, than their homeworld.

The First had wasted no time in spiriting these priceless demons to its own world. The First offered the Men'kali protection from their enemies. In exchange, the demons would use their power to expand the First's empire to myriad other dimensions. The pact was a forgone conclusion.

In barely two years, the Men'kali helped the First spread its dominion farther than it had in two billion. But the one world the First Evil desired most still remained under the tutelage of the Powers. The Slayer and other unchosen warriors of earth managed to prevent the Men'kali demon sent to absorb that world from carrying out its mission. The Watcher's Council dubbed the entombed demon Acathla, 'Swallower of Worlds' in a long dead human dialect. Acathla remained dormant, trapped in a prison of solid rock until the vampire Angelus reawakened it. But again, the Powers' champion emerged victorious.

All of that would become a moot point, however, should the Master succeed and bring about the return of the Old Ones. The First's victory would then be assured. It had sent one of the Men'kali to the dimension on the other side of the Hellmouth, to lay in wait should that gateway between worlds ever be thrown open. With the Hellmouth connecting the earth and the adjoining demon dimension, the Men'kali would swallow them both, with none of the Power's warriors able to stop it. The Old Ones would be easily overcome. Ancient and awesomely powerful though they were, they were still mortal and thus lower beings.

And then, the First could finally obtain that which it had sought since the beginning of time. A power beyond comprehension, beyond anything the universe had ever known. A power which fate had decreed be hidden away somewhere on earth, away from the First's covetous grasp. But not for much longer.

For now, all the First would do was wait in the wings for the opportunity that was presenting itself. It would wait for this child the Powers had made their final hope to make his final mistake and then take advantage. Soon, nothing would be able to stand in the First's way. Soon...

  
  
  


End XIII 


	9. Quicker Than The Eye (1/2)

See previous part for Disclaimer, etc.

  
  


****Chapter XIV - Quicker Than The Eye

  
  


_April 17, 1997_

_9:20 PM_

_Pelter Ave, Sunnydale, CA_

  
  


The couple walked leisurely down the sidewalk, quietly chatting and laughing with carefree joy as the predator watched from the shadowy alley several meters in front of them. The vampire's feral yellow eyes followed the duo as they walked by his alley, completely ignorant of his presence.

The vampire, Eric Thompson, was new in town, having jumped a train in Wisconsin a week ago. In that time, he had fed on nothing but the liquor-saturated blood of hobos, which had been interesting at first, but quickly became nauseating. It left the barely month-old creature of the night ravenous for untainted blood, like the two teenagers he was now stalking had flowing through their veins. It would satisfy him until he carried out his 'mission'.

He was here to kill the Slayer. He'd been turned by a vampire traveling east, trying to get as far away from Sunnydale, California and its resident vampire slayer as he could. Eric had scoffed at his sire's fear. Who could be afraid of a puny little girl?

Certainly not him. Eric had grown up in Appleton, a half hour drive from the football Mecca of the United States (in his opinion, anyway), Green Bay. He had lived and breathed football since age three and by the time he was admitted to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Eric wanted nothing more than to get drafted by his beloved Packers and serve on Brett Favre's O-line. His 6'6', 300 pound, 80% muscle frame did nothing to discourage him or lessen his chances. The supernaturally strong and hungry vampire Eric ran into one night after getting wasted with his buddies did.

The same single-mindedness Eric used to turn back opposing defensive backs he now applied to his new un-life. He had lost count already of how many people he'd beaten to death, reveling in his new found super strength. It had bloated his ego to outrageous proportions. He was invincible! Nothing could stop him, especially not some little chick with a stake. Eric had grandiose dreams, like every newborn vampire. He'd kill the Slayer no problem, then he'd rule over the Hellmouth with an iron fist. After that, who knew? Eric sure didn't.

Eric stepped out of the alleyway and started to follow his prey, who were still whispering to themselves, supremely confident in his invulnerability.

  
  


"Quit trying to worm your way out of this, Buff. Just accept it: you lost fair and square."

"Xan-der," Buffy whined, leaning on her boyfriend's shoulder as they walked. "You're the guy. It's standard dating protocol for the guy to pay the bill. If he's lucky, the girl does the tipping. How will _you_ look if _I_ pay?"

"I'm secure in my masculinity Buffy. Besides, it's the late nineties, babe. All that gender equality crap means that women can drive and-and vote and pay for stuff and _everything_. If someone looks at me funny, I'll just tell them that you're paying because you lost a bet that we wouldn't be attacked by a blood-thirsty vampire during our last date. I'll even show him a plastic baggie of this guy's ashes if he doesn't believe me."

The Slayer giggled as she kept her walk casual, pretending she didn't know there was a big, hulking creature of the night following them. "Why do they always have to attack us when we go out? This is, like, the third time this month already."

"It's the Hellmouth, Buff. Where the big scary evil comes to you."

"But why me?" she whined exaggeratedly. "Just cuz I kill their pals on a nightly basis, why do they have to mess up my dates? Don't they know how hard it is to fight in these shoes?"

"Vamps are inconsiderate like that," Xander offered sympathetically. "I think it's just cuz they find you as irresistible as I do. Their only crime is good taste. And, well, attempted murder."

"Aw, that soooo sweet, Xan," Buffy cooed with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "But I'm still not paying next time."

Xander narrowed his eyes at her, but then an equally mischievous smirk crossed his lips. "Tell ya what, Buff. You won't have to pay for our next date-"

"See? Was that so hard? Ya give a little, ya get a little."

"I-I haven't gotten anything, if I recall correctly."

"Sure ya did. The company of the prettiest Slayer in town for an evening," Buffy batted her eyelashes and smiled sweetly at her boyfriend.

"Well, that's great and all, but it's canceled out by *you* getting to spend an evening with your witty, handsome-beyond-belief boyfriend," Xander retorted.

Buffy shrugged nonchalantly, putting on a dismissive air. "Whatever. It was OK, I guess." She tried to keep the smile off her face, but failed miserably when she noticed Xander's disbelieving little smirk and raised eyebrow.

"You think I can't tell that you're having the time of your life? Gimme a little credit, Slay-gal," Xander smirked as Buffy blushed. "Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Buffy glanced at him innocently. "You won't have to pay the highly exorbitant amount that D'Angelo's charges _if_ you can slay this guy in under thirty seconds."

Buffy raised an eyebrow of her own and smiled. "What about quipping?"

Xander pondered that for a few moments, staring off into the night sky. "Pre-fight quipping will not be counted. The clock starts when the first punch is thrown. Any mid-fight pauses in which you mock your opponent _will_ be included in your final time, however."

The Slayer got a ferocious look in her eyes, accompanied by an eager grin. "That's a sucker bet, Xan. The only reason my fights last so long is cuz I like knockin' the vamps around for a while before I dust 'em." She reached into her purse and withdrew the wooden stake she carried with her everywhere for just such an occasion.

"Tut, tut, tut," Xander wagged his finger at Buffy. "I am well aware of that sadistic little habit of yours, Buff, so the challenge is..." He caught her gaze with his and used her momentary distraction to snatch the stake out of her hand. Buffy gave a little gasp/whine of surprise when she realized what he'd done. "No stake to start with." He grinned madly at his girlfriend's look of shock and consternation.

"B-bu-but," she sputtered, looking around as they continued to walk, "There's-there's nothing else to kill him with around here!" The sidewalk was largely bare, with just streetlights, a mailbox and a couple benches sporting advertisements for local businesses.

"Don't worry, Buffster. I've got faith in your resourcefulness. And if you need any help, well, your strapping, tough manly-man will not hesitate to jump to your rescue."

Buffy made a silent pledge right then and there. She would _not_ need Xander's help. "I am _so_ not gonna need your help," she promised.

"We'll see..."

Xander had a quick hyena-Buffy flashback when his girlfriend growled, actually _growled_, at him. "You're gonna eat those words, Harris," she muttered.

"Just as long as stalker-vamp doesn't eat you first, Buff."

By this time, Buffy had sensed the vampire following them had almost caught up, so she stopped in her tracks and turned around, hands planted firmly on her hips. "Do you mind?" Buffy said to the demon, which froze when the Slayer turned on him. "My boyfriend and I are trying to have a conversation here and your 'bull-in-a-china-shop' stalking is drowning us out."

The big vamp sneered at her. "I was _not_ loud!" he insisted.

"Yes, you were," Buffy disagreed.

"No, I wasn't!!" the vamp yelled.

Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed. "Doesn't the fact that we're having this discussion prove me right?"

The hulking behemoth stared at her for a few seconds as his clockwork brain tried to process Buffy's argument. "Shut up!" Apparently, it failed. "I'm gonna kill you!" he exclaimed angrily, pointing at the Slayer.

Buffy and Xander laughed, incensing the already pissed off vampire further. "How lame was that? 'I'm gonna kill you,'" Buffy imitated in a gruff voice. "What are ya gonna do? Suck our blood?"

The vampire didn't seem to catch onto the sarcasm in Buffy's voice. "Well, as a matter of fact..." and then he vamped out, expecting his sudden change in facial appearance to shock and terrify his victims.

It did nothing of the kind. The couple didn't even bat a collective eyelash when his face morphed into its demonic mask. He tried something else. "I'm a _vampire_!" he shouted, baring his fangs and snarling at them.

"Well, duh," Buffy said, sounding extremely blasé about the whole thing. "I think I know a vampire when I see one. I am the Slayer, y'know."

"You're ... the Slayer?" the overgrown creature asked. "I've been looking for you," he said with a wicked grin.

"See?" Xander suddenly interjected to Buffy. "Simply irre_sist_ible!" he said in a musical kind of way.

The vamp just ignored him. "Lucky me. I get to kill the Slayer on my first night in town."

Buffy smirked at the vampire's totally misplaced confidence. "You get to try."

The vampire growled at her and seemed ready to jump the Slayer, but he stopped when Xander yelled, "WAIT!"

Buffy and the vamp turned to look at Xander, who was fiddling with his digital watch. After a few beeps to set the timer, he looked up. "OK, you can go ahead now."

While the demon still stared at Xander in confusion, Buffy jump-kicked him under the chin, smashing his jaws together and sending a couple of his incisors flying through the air. The Slayer laid into her foe with a lightning-quick series of body blows, then blocking the one clumsy swing the vamp could muster and countering with an uppercut that sent him staggering back.

The vampire came back with a vengeance, but not much in the way of intelligence. He swung at the Slayer twice, but both times she ducked. With a frustrated grunt, he tried to grab Buffy, but she stayed the move with her own powerful arms. The creature was so shocked at the amount of strength the Slayer packed in her petite frame that it didn't even try and break free for a few seconds. In that time, Buffy used her grip on his tree trunk-like arms to execute a back flip in place, kicking the vamp in its face with both feet on her way 'round.

The impact sent the demon reeling backwards until his back met the wall of the streetside building. Apparently having realized it had bitten off more than it could chew, the vamp scampered awkwardly toward an alleyway in an attempt to escape. Buffy and Xander quickly gave chase, one grimly looking around for a weapon appropriate for vampire slayage, the other yelling out the seconds to go before Buffy's time ran out.

"Sixteen!"

"Shut up."

"Fifteen!"

"Shut up!"

Seeing the vampire speeding away down the alley, Buffy grabbed an empty garbage can on the fly and heaved it at the fleeing creature's legs. It succeeded in tripping him up and the vampire flopped onto a collection of garbage cans himself. Buffy had caught up with him by the time he got to his feet, covered in garbage water and other gross, sticky substances. In a mindless rage, the vampire charged wildly at the Slayer, clamoring for her blood. Buffy smoothly sidestepped the attack and kicked the vamp's leg's out from under him as he flailed by her. He fell face first into the alley's opposite wall, on his knees.

Buffy frantically searched the area for something to finish the fight off with. One of the garbage cans lolling back and forth at her feet gave her an idea and brought an evil smile to her face. Kicking the vulnerable vampire once more in the back to keep him in place, Buffy picked up the can, one hand on a handle the other on the bottom. At the creature's groan, she said, "What's that ya say? A little off the top?"

Drawing the metal can back, the Slayer then swung it forward with all her strength, aiming the edge for the back of the vampire's neck. The can's circular edge may not have been much of a blade, but a vampire's partially decayed body wasn't as durable as a living human's. Buffy's success was proven by the loud clang of the can slamming into the side of the building. The vampire's body started slumping to the ground as it disintegrated into dust.

"Well, that beats the heck outta the Exact-O knife, huh, Xan?" Buffy asked, tossing the used garbage can into the scattered pile of its counterparts.

"I'll give you points for creativity, Buff. Never seen the 'garbage can guillotine' before," Xander said with a smile. That disappeared off his face when his watch started beeping again. Signaling the end of the thirty seconds.

Xander looked at his watch in dismay.

Buffy jumped into the air in glee.

"Woo hoo!" she shouted. "I win! You suck! You pay! I don't! La la la la la!!" She pranced down the alley toward Xander, celebrating her victory. Xander just tried to look impassive, but his girlfriend's comically-wide smile melted his heart and sent him into hysterics.

"Have we learned anything from this, Xander, dear?" Buffy asked in a very mommish voice.

"Yes, Buffy dear," Xander replied in the proper droning tone of voice.

"And what did you learn?"

Xander sighed. "Never bet against the Slayer when it comes to killing things."

"Darn tootin'," Buffy said, then snaked her arm through his as she started leading him out of the stinky alley by the crook of his arm.

"Buff?"

"Yeah?"

"That was _so_ cool."

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


_10:30 PM_

_SHS Library_

  
  


"So, we're here why, again?" Xander asked as he and Buffy approached the back entrance to the library, the one they used when the school was closed, but the business of saving the world ran late.

"I told you, I want Giles to know about a new vamp being in town. Could be the start of a trend, and the sooner we get rid of it, the sooner we can have slay-free dates."

"Yeah. And G-Man hasn't had anything to hem and haa over for a while. It's kinda sad, really. He gets that longing look in his eyes when he glances over at all those books of his ... so much reading material, so little evil to research."

"Oh, he's been doing the longing-look thing at more than musty old books lately. I think our stuffy little Watcher has discovered girls!"

"He's still pretending he thinks Miss Calendar is just 'an insufferable techno-advocate'?" Xander asked, effecting Giles' accent while imitating his words.

Laughing, Buffy replied, "Big time. But he walked into a door the other day while he was watching her. Said something about 'the bloody, damn door,'" After a short pause, she continued, "Do you think we could-"

"No," Xander replied, cutting her off.

"'No' what?"

"I know everything," he said with a smile, but his expression became pensive as he went on. "And no, we're not gonna try and set those two up. I learned my lesson with Willow and Oz. Matchmaking plus Hellmouth equals disaster."

"Worked pretty well with us, didn't it?" Buffy asked playfully.

"Buff, not even Satan himself could keep me away from you," he answered, half joking and half serious. They had reached the closed door at the back of the library when Xander noticed something. "Are you sure Giles is here, Buffy? Lights aren't on."

While Xander stopped to survey the area, his caution brought on by a niggling feeling that something wasn't right, Buffy stepped forward and turned the door knob. "Door's open." The duo walked inside.

The first thing Xander noticed as he stepped through the doorway was that there was absolutely no light in the library. Not even the faint glow that would be visible if Giles' office light was on. Xander's ears perked up when he heard a muffled shuffling up ahead. Something moving around in the dark was generally not a good thing when it came to Sunnydale.

Xander turned to Buffy, who had frozen when she heard the sound as well. She indicated with her hand that they should go through the stacks to get to the main floor of the library. Xander nodded and the two crept carefully in that direction. They split up through the stacks; only one person could walk comfortably between the bookshelves. Moving slowly, Xander's senses could pick up no other sounds, but his eyes were gradually adjusting to the darkness.

As he reached the end of the bookshelves flanking him, Xander halted. He peered out into the darkness, but could only make out the dull outlines of the library's main features: the table, the circulation desk, the book cage. Seeing nothing moving, Xander ever so cautiously emerged from the stacks and approached the stairs. He focused totally on his movements and his surroundings. Lift one foot, gently put it down in front of the other, look around for a few seconds. He even forgot that Buffy should've emerged from the stacks by that time.

Xander started to take the first step when he suddenly noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. A shadow abruptly stood up from its hiding spot on the far side of the circulation desk. As Xander snapped his head in that direction, the figure reached for the light switch and-

"SURPRISE!!!"

The chorus of shouting voices caught Xander in mid-step, hovering over the edge of the steps. The unexpected light and loud greeting scared the hell out of him and he lost his precarious balance.

"Wooooooaaaaaahhhhhhh!!" he wailed as he fell forward and tumbled head over heels down the few stairs, landing with a painful thump on his back. His ribs may have healed pretty well over the past month and a bit, but his chest was still tender. Which was the secret reason he had let Buffy handle the party-crashing vamp earlier.

"Xander!!" the voices chorused again, but Xander could also pick out a 'Xan!' from his girlfriend and a distinctly British-sounding 'Oh goodness!'

"Ohhh, jeeeez," Xander moaned from the floor. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but he was going to squeeze this for all it was worth. Letting himself go limp, he saw several heads pop into his view, including those of his three lady friends, a Watcher and a (this month) fair-haired musician. They all tried to say something at once, and it came out as a jumble of words that Xander couldn't pick apart into coherent sentences.

"Xan! Xan! Are you all right?" He was finally able to make out what Buffy was saying in the totally concerned way that always warmed his heart. Funny how getting hurt usually leads to happiness for me Xander thought with a wan smile.

"Well, I could use a back rub," Xander said, wincing in pretend pain.

"Ah, don't believe him," the voice of Jesse interrupted. He was the only one Xander couldn't see. He was probably the one who hit the lights, Xander decided. "He's just fakin' it to get sympathy."

"Jesse!" Amy and Willow chastised him at the same time. Willow continued their thought. "He just fell down a bunch of stairs and-"

"Actually, I am fine," Xander said, sitting up without an ounce of difficulty. "But your compassion is much appreciated." He easily hopped to his feet, brushing himself off. The three girls glared at his smug expression and then started slapping him for his trickery. "Ow! Ow! Hey, girls, one at a time! One at a time!" Xander managed to escape the Scooby gal circle of smacking and faced the guys. "So, um, hey. Why'd everyone yell at me? Some secret plot to kill me through the breaking of my neck? Or maybe..." He trailed off when he glanced at the table and did a double take at what he saw there.

It was a cake, professionally decorated and studded with a number of unlit candles. The image of a cross and stake was iced on it, with the words 'Happy Birthday Xander!' superimposed on top in cursive.

Xander walked up to the table, staring at the pastry in bewilderment. When he turned back to his friends, they all had big smiles on their faces. Except, naturally, for Giles and Oz, who never wore big smiles. They had their big smile equivalents on, though. "Ooookay. Either the Powers That Be got drunk and decided to have some more time traveling fun with the Xandman or you all have lost your minds. Cuz, I'm pretty sure you all know that my birthday is in November," Xander stared trepidatiously at his friends, hoping for an explanation that made a modicum of sense.

Willow tried to offer one. "I-It was my idea, Xander. Um, sorta. I-I mean Buffy helped and all and Jesse and Amy and Oz too, and-and we had to tell Giles cuz-cuz it's his library and it's the only place big enough for the party and-and-"

"Wiiiiiillllllll," Xander whined, staring at her pleadingly in hopes of cutting off her current babble.

"Eep. Sorry. Well, you-you told us you got, uh, sent back at the beginning of August 2001, right?" Xander nodded. "So, then I figured out that you missed your twenty-first birthday by three and a half months ... um, not-not that I'm the only one who could, I mean, anyone could have figured that out, obviously. A-Anyway, um ... happy birthday!" she shouted, throwing her hands up. After a second, his other friends followed her lead.

Xander gawked at his pals in amazement and realized that he was right the first time: they _were_ nuts. But he loved 'em for it. Willow and Jesse knew that his birthdays were always sub-par, owing to the lack of interest his parents showed in him, and wanted to give him a great party with their expanded clique of friends. His _real_ family, as Xander thought of them. Only with a couple new additions, and old members in new positions.

"Awwww, you guys. I'd hug you all if it was physically possible!" Xander settled for hugging his gal pals separately, with a quick little peck on the cheek for his girlfriend, manly head nods and _no_ hugs for Jesse and Oz, and, finally, a firm handshake from Giles.

"So who's the pastry artist here? I don't suppose you picked this out of a Dairy Queen window," Xander indicated the slaying-themed birthday cake.

"I saved one of the chefs at the bakery uptown from a vamp, like, a month ago," Buffy explained. "And he offered to do something to repay me, so when Wills came up with the idea for your cosmically-balanced twenty-first B-day, I asked him to bake a cake fit for a big manly demon killer like you."

"Sort of Sunnydale's answer to 'here's a cookie for raking my lawn.'" Amy commented.

"'Here's a cake for staking that demon spawn,'" Jesse rhymed, his arm around Amy's shoulders.

"Well thank you all, said he of brains and brawn," Xander chimed in.

"Now let's get this party started, we'll keep it going till dawn," Buffy added with a smile.

Giles sighed and shook his head. "Don't you think this is a little overdrawn?" The teenagers all turned to look at Giles in surprise. The Watcher blinked as he realized he had inadvertently entered their little rhym-athon. "Oh ... damn. I'll get the refreshments," he said as he headed for his office, trying to hide his embarrassment, but failed as their laughter followed him all the way there.

"Hey, G-Man! My presents in there? And you guys better not skimp when my real birthday comes along," Xander called out.

"Think again, man-child," Jesse said. "If you're gonna live in _our_ timeline, you gotta live by our rules. Rule the first: Presents will be given only on actual birthdays, Christmas slash Hanukkah," he added for Willow's benefit. His technically-Jewish friend smiled. "and occasionally Easter. Rule the second: Jesse is to be kissed by his super hot girlfriend every time he makes a joke or humorous reference. Rule the-" Jesse was cut off when the aforementioned girlfriend gave him the kiss rule two had required.

"There. Now shuddup, already," Amy said, giving him a light smack on the cheek.

Jesse happily shut his trap. "Oz, man, let's gets some tune-age goin' here!"

Oz nodded. "Some quality tune-age comin' right up," he said and went over to the circulation desk. Leaning over it, he hoisted a big boom box from a lower counter to the outer one.

While Oz fiddled with his dream machine, Xander sidled up next to Buffy. "Well, Buff, since I'm not getting any material presents, how's about something..."

"Immaterial? Way to sweet talk me, Xan," Buffy smirked. "All right birthday boy, close your eyes and you might get a big surprise."

Xander's grin was a mile wide as he shut his eyes. "You're gonna strip, Buff? But all our friends are here, what'll they think?" Xander felt Buffy's face near his, her warm breath on his lips. Just as he thought she was going to meld her lips to his for the four hundred sixty-fourth time, Give or take, her head turned and she whispered in his ear.

"Maybe later."

ACK! She is pure evil! Xander thought. "You are pure evil," he said, eyes still closed. The music from Oz's boom box started playing at that moment and Xander opened his eyes to see Buffy smirking teasingly up at him.

"Gotta go, Xan. Girl talk," she said. The start of the music was apparently the signal for gender separation, as Amy slipped away from Jesse and the two blond girls walked away from their significant others, taking Willow along for the ride.

Xander frowned at that thought. It was more true than he wanted to admit. Ever since 'the hyena incident' things had been ... weird between Buffy and Willow. The comfortable conversation he had witnessed between them for five years had been reduced to a few strained sentences when they spoke to one another. There wasn't any hostility - Willow had forgiven Buffy for her hyena-self's actions - but Willow's continued trouble dealing with his and Buffy's relationship was the elephant in the room wherever she and the Slayer met. And the meddling pachyderm wouldn't go away until Willow finally and truly put her feelings for him to rest.

As Xander accepted a can drink from Jesse, he watched the girls chat amongst themselves. If the Buffy-Willow situation was weird, the Buffy-Amy one was completely unbelievable, at least to Xander. If Xander didn't know any better, the blond dating his best friend had taken Willow's place as Buffy's best gal pal. Objectively, that made perfect sense. Amy had risked her own well being to save Buffy from the hyena spirit possessing her. Their boyfriends were best friends. They were more in synch with one another personality-wise. But to Xander, it was disconcerting and saddening to see Willow as a fifth wheel in their circle of friends.

Xander sighed and turned his attention to Jesse and Oz. Jesse was watching the girls too, but with apprehension. Not so slick now, are we McCormick? I wonder what Amy's telling Will and Buff about you The thought put a smile on his face and his worries were forgotten for the moment.

With the music playing loudly and the two groups talking among themselves, no one noticed one of the library's swing doors open and close, seemingly of its own accord...

  
  


TBC...


	10. Quicker Than The Eye (2/2)

See first part for Disclaimer, etc.

  
  


Main Hallway, SHS

  
  


To the casual observer, the darkened corridors of Sunnydale High School were completely deserted. Even to the most astute of observers, the muted, repetitive thuds could be chalked up to something rattling around in the air ducts, or an odd sonic phenomenon transmitting sounds from outside. But the opening and closing of the music room door, with no visible force applied, could not be seen as anything but out of the ordinary.

Inside room 127, the music hall, a spontaneous creak arose out of the instrument-filled cabinet in the corner. A moment later, a rectangular hatch in the ceiling above the cabinet opened inward and was lowered shut after a few seconds.

The loft above the music hall was more like an elevated crawl-space. It's low ceiling made standing an iffy proposition for anyone over five feet tall, and that wasn't even considering the chaotic web of cables - some insulated, some bare - thin pipes, ducts and other things loosely attached to and hanging from the ceiling. They were swayed back and forth by two fans which circulated air around the room, and, during the day, provided the only conduit for natural light in the loft. In the corner, a very make-shift bed - it would have been stretching it to call it a cot - lay rumpled and unmade, as well as a host of other items one would normally find in someone's bedroom, not a cramped, musty attic.

Marcie Ross groped around in the dark for her flashlight and flipped it on upon discovering it, cleaving the air with a bright beam of light. It was an industrial-sized one that she'd swiped out of the shops room five months ago, when she'd moved into her present accommodations. When those goddamn bitches made me move she thought with utter and complete hatred. She had to fight down the urge, for about the millionth time, to pay Cordelia Chase a visit with her friend Rusty Blade. Everything that had gone wrong with her life was that snotty little rich whore's fault. But that was why she held back. Marcie wanted to exact her revenge at just the right moment, when Cordelia would suffer the most.

Marcie had long ago gotten accustomed to her invisible condition and didn't even bat an unseen eye upon seeing the flashlight floating in front of her. Not that she'd had a clue as to why this had happened to her, until she'd heard a possible explanation a month or so ago. She wasn't exactly sure - time had become irrelevant since she'd faded out of the world's view.

An ear-splitting, animalistic howl had drawn Marcie's attention that night to the school library, where she'd found the new librarian and Willow Rosenburg watching Amy Madison being circled by some kind of green ghost-animal thing. For an invisible person, she'd been surprisingly shocked at that supernatural scene, but Marcie had decided to keep an eye on those three from then on. What she'd found out was that her hometown was a beacon for monsters - Monsters! - and a bunch of students and the librarian fought them. The new blond girl (Buffy Summers, she'd learned from breaking into student records in the principal's office) was 'the Slayer' and had superpowers. The librarian called himself her 'Watcher'. Whatever they were. And, most importantly, Xander Harris, who Marcie remembered as a first class dork on his good days, was actually a twenty-one year old teenager.

At first, Marcie hadn't believed a word they'd said. She'd thought they were making everything up just to fool her, and that they were laughing at her behind her back, conveniently forgetting that they didn't even know she was there. Maybe it stemmed from her continued desire to be noticed, despite her current situation.

Then, on one of her clandestine spy jobs, she'd heard a conversation between Xander and her old computer science teacher, Miss Calendar. Marcie couldn't follow a lot of what they talked about - it was just a bunch of supernatural mumbo-jumbo to her. But she did come away with the impression that Xander knew things about the computer teacher that Miss Calendar didn't think he should. Marcie remembered that Miss Calendar used to noticed her sometimes. She'd said "Nice job, Marcie," one time when she was handing back an assignment. It was basically the sum total of praise she'd received from the Sunnydale High faculty in her tenure there. So, Marcie had been inclined to believe Miss Calendar wasn't out to get her, since she wasn't quite the monumental bitch every other Sunnydale resident was.

Observing the bizarre party tonight had solidified Marcie's theory that Xander and his friends were either clinically insane or telling the truth. And if they weren't insane then Xander might know about her. She was secretly thrilled that someone might actually be thinking about her.

But then she remembered how he would remember her - as the person who mutilated Cordelia's face. That's what Marcie had planned. She was going to give the bitch queen a very bloody makeover with good ol' Rusty. Good ol' Rusty. My only friend now. Funny how I can't even see my blood on you Marcie had taken to cutting herself sometimes to see if she'd bleed invisible blood, which she did. She kept doing it every week or so to see if anything changed, though it never did. But she had no plans to stop her masochistic ritual.

They'll try and stop me! Marcie's thoughts eventually wandered back to the matter at hand. She knew Xander and Willow hated Cor-bitch too. Maybe they'll help me? she wondered. No they won't! They were always talking about saving people. They'd probably even try and save the whore-bitch. Bastards. They're just as bad as her! If they try and stop me, I'll, I'll kill them!!

Marcie suddenly started giggling, as she always did when she figured something out, or connected the dots to come up with a great plan. "They'll pay," she whispered out between maniacal chortles. "They'll all pay."

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


April 18, 1997

4:15 PM

SHS Library

  
  


"Are you sure, Xan?" Buffy asked, concerned about her boyfriend's well being.

Xander sighed. "Why do you keep asking me that? I am completely, 100% fine with it. I couldn't be any finer," he smirked at that. "And on a related topic, neither could you." Xander visibly scanned his girlfriend from head to toe.

The Slayer rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. "Xander, be serious. I don't want to do anything that could ... hurt you anymore than I already have."

Xander frowned as Buffy did the same. "And how many times have I told you to stop obsessing over that, too? What happened wasn't your fault. It's practically mine for-"

"What are you talking about!?" Buffy exclaimed. "How can you say it was you when it was me? Me, me, me, me, me! I'm the one who-"

"Buff, just ... stop it, 'kay?" Xander interrupted. "Even if I did blame you for what you did while you were possessed, which I don't," he emphasized, "It's in the past, and therefore doesn't matter."

Buffy bit her lip and glanced trepidatiously at Xander. "I don't know-"

"Do you not want to do this?" he blurted out.

"No!" she denied immediately. "No, I do, I totally do. I just..."

"Oh for heaven's sakes," Rupert Giles spoke from his seat beside the table, just behind where Buffy and Xander were talking. The Watcher was toweling some sweat off his forehead. The couple turned their attention to the irritated Brit. "Would you two just end this melodrama and get on with it?"

Buffy and Xander blinked in mutual surprise at Giles' rebuke, and then turned back to one another. Xander grinned. "You did sound pretty whiny there, Buff."

The Slayer's glare spoke of impending trouble for her ill-prepared boyfriend. "Y'know, suddenly, your health and continued vertical alignment aren't all that important to me."

"Wanna get me horizontal, huh? I knew it."

If he hadn't known her so well, the barely noticeable change in her facial expression and body language which altered her demeanor from annoyed to sultry in a heartbeat would have caused his eyes to bulge. "You think you can take me?" Buffy asked in an invitingly and challenging way.

"I could take you where you stand," Xander stated, stepping toward Buffy while oozing machismo.

Giles groaned quietly and rubbed his temples with his fingertips. Do they have to do this every time?

Buffy raised her chin in defiance. "You couldn't take me if I had both hands tied behind my back."

Xander kept slowly swaggering toward Buffy. "You've got the order mixed up there, Buff. First comes the taking, then we do the tying!"His last word was raised as he started their sparring session by firing a right jab at his girlfriend with as much strength and speed as he could. He didn't pull any punches because knew what the result we be.

Buffy calmly weaved to the side and used her arm to bat Xander's jab away from her head. He immediately spun on the ball of his right foot into a left roundhouse kick, which the Slayer also dodged with fluid grace. Xander tried again to lay a fist on her, but the block came up again...

As Xander relentlessly attacked Buffy, he was irked by his girlfriend's unruffled, almost lackadaisical efforts to turn him back, which were nevertheless working. Even more infuriating was the obvious fact that she had no intention of counterattacking him, and instead seemed intent on letting him wear himself out. And, unfortunately for Xander, pride went before his fall. 

After a couple minutes and with one last, mighty swing, Xander overextended himself. Buffy merely stepped out of the way so that he could stumble to the ground in a graceless, face-first heap on the matted floor.

"Had enough, boy toy?" Buffy taunted him, and he couldn't detect any hitched speech that labored breathing would cause her.

"Wench," Xander wheezed. The Slayer laughed at him and he heard her move behind him to his right. He prepared for his last attempt to get at Buffy.

"Need help, X-" she was interrupted herself when she saw Xander tense his leg and realized he was planning to sweep her legs out from under her. She hopped straight up-

And was surprised when Xander rolled over and swung his leg up, not right over the mat, like she expected, but at a high angle so that his shin struck her knees.

Xander really followed through, though, so that when Buffy landed on her back, she still had momentum flipping her backwards. So, when Xander rolled back over to gloat at his minor victory, Buffy had already rolled herself back to her feet, and stepped on his chest to pin him down. She had a very pleased smirk on her face. Xander had his jaw gaping wide open. "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"

"That's impossible!" Xander tried to deny the impossible-to-deny.

"And I was even going easy on you," Buffy shook her head in mock-sadness. "That's just so ... sad."

"Yeah, well, one of these days, it's me who's gonna be pushing down on your chest," Xander started when he realized what he'd said, but then broke out in a lewd grin when Buffy blushed. "And what a banner day that'll be." He was rewarded for his wit by the Slayer applying some more pressure to his ribs. Hell would freeze over before he winced at the slight pain that caused. That was the whole point behind this first training session with Buffy since his debilitating injuries at the Master's hands. His bones were technically healed, but damned if they didn't hurt now. On the other hand, admitting that to Buffy would be admitting she was right, and he couldn't have that.

Buffy was about to reply when the library doors were pushed open and the library's occupants turned or lifted their heads to see Amy and Jesse enter. Jesse's face sagged in disappointment when he saw Buffy pinning Xander down. "You guys started without me? You know how much I love watching Xander get beat up by a girl!"

"She's got the strength of, like, twenty men," a sweating and panting Xander protested.

"I know," Jesse smirked. "I just love saying it."

"Jesse," Amy said. "We're not here to rub Xander's inadequacies in, remember?"

"Hey..." Xander called weakly from the floor.

"You're right. I'm sorry pookie," Jesse replied to his girlfriend. He winced when, after smiling at him, Amy wrapped her arm around his and then dug her fingernails into his forearm.

"Do you remember our talk about disgusting pet names?"

"Do you remember our talk about gouging my poor arms?" Jesse retorted. "I'm gonna have to start wearing long-sleeves, or else people are gonna start talking."

"Hello? Manhood being trampled here," Xander interrupted, trying to get his own girlfriend's attention.

Buffy was unsympathetic. Shrugging, she suggested, "So get up..."

"...see, I thought 'pookie' was one of the agreed upon nicknames," Jesse argued to Amy. "It came up during that whole shnookie-cookie-wookie train of thought."

"Yeah, and I shot all those down. Do I look like a poodle?..."

Moving was not an option for Xander. Sharp lances of pain streaked up from his chest when he did. "Buffy, don't make me do something we'll both regret later."

"Like what? Beg? Why ever would I regret that?..."

"...must ... resist ... smart-assed comment..." Jesse ground out, trying to avoid saying something that would get him into scalding hot water with his girlfriend.

"Please stop," Giles interrupted, finally discovering a break between both conversations. The teenagers hadn't even noticed that the Watcher had meandered in between the bickering couples. "I-I don't know how much more ... adolescent innuendo I can bear before I do something I'll regret. Buffy, let Xander up," he ordered.

She did as he said. "You're the Watcher." Xander quickly got up, pretending as if he felt no pain.

Giles turned to Amy. "You said you were here for a reason, other than driving me batty?"

The blond girl who was not a Slayer nodded. "Ghost."

"Wind," Jesse followed immediately.

"Ghost!" Amy fired back.

"Wind!"

"So we're going with 'ghost wind' then?" Xander asked, lowering himself into the chair Giles had vacated.

"Is that even possible?" Buffy asked her Watcher.

"Sure," Xander responded. "Breeze with post-mortem issues. Maybe it always wanted it to be a gale." The others stared blankly at him for a long moment, so Xander rolled his eyes at them. "Yes, that was sarcasm. God it sucks being the mature one."

"I've never thought you were mature," Jesse piped up. Xander smirked, feeling a little better at his friend's assurances of his continued immaturity.

"I mean, just a ghost," Amy corrected.

"She means 'just a wind.'" Jesse counter-claimed.

"Stop being an idiot! There's no wind in the middle of the school!" Amy retorted.

"There could be," Jesse insisted. "We're on an evil portal-thing, after all. Wacky, sudden, cold winds come with the territory."

Giles' impatience finally brimmed over into annoyance, and he took his glasses off to rub at his eyes with the back of his hand. "C-could you possibly tell me what in the name of God you're speaking of?"

"Nothing. My girly girlfriend is just jumping at shadows. Aren'tcha Aims?"

Amy crossed her arms in front of her and glared archly at her erstwhile boyfriend. "Why are you being such a big, stupid, pig-headed ... guy?" Before Jesse could answer to that, Amy decided to just take her chances with Giles. She turned her attention to him. "We were on our way here. Jesse wasn't acting like such a jerk," Jesse crossed his own arms and exhaled a quick 'pfft!'. Amy glared at him further. "And then the door by the gym just slammed shut, really hard. Sounds like a poltergeist to me. Unless you subscribe to Jesse's 'stupid, stupid wind theory,'" she added condescendingly.

"I-I think I'll reserve judgement," Giles hedged.

In a flash of inspiration, Xander snapped his fingers and pointed at Jesse. "The old Veeling farm!"

At Xander's odd utterance, all except Jesse regarded Xander with curiosity bordering on disbelief. Jesse stared daggers at Xander. 

"The ... old baby ... deer killing farm?" Buffy questioned.

"Hey Xander, weren't you going to shut up about now?" Jesse asked/ordered.

"No, I remember now," Xander started. "When we were like, eight, me, you and Wills went to that old farm just outside town cuz it was supposed to be haunted. Then when we were lookin' around, you came out screaming out of the barn like a banshee. Ha!" he laughed. As he was struck by realization, his eyes bulged wide. "Hey, you think there really was a ghost?"

"Ya think!?" Jesse exclaimed in aggravation, throwing his hands in the air. "You guys were all 'oh, fraidy-cat Jesse'. Well I see your mocking and raise you a Hellmouth!"

"So ... you were being a anal-retentive jerk because you were scared?" Amy asked, her angry somewhat sapped.

"No!" Jesse denied immediately. "Scared of a ghost? I-I'm fearless in the face of the supernatural! How many vamps have I taken out, huh?"

"Two, by my count," Xander inserted. He hoisted his feet up onto the adjacent chair and leaned back, with his hands behind his head. "Ain't just a big ol' river anymore is it Jess-man?"

"Do you have any idea how dead you are?" Jesse threatened.

Xander shook his head. He'd just supplied his friend with an ideal fix to his minor spat with Amy, but he was more worried about his own pride. Right, cuz you always do the rational thing he thought sarcastically.

Luckily for Jesse, Amy seemed to be able to see right through his translucent boasting. "Ohhhh, I'm sorry for going all witchy on you." She returned to her comfortable position right next to Jesse. "You don't have to be ashamed about being afraid. Half the creepy stuff we deal with freaks me out like you wouldn't believe."

Jesse finally twigged to Xander's motive for bringing up his embarrassing childhood story. "Well, maybe I was a little afraid..."

"Yes, wonderful. Could we perhaps return to the issue at hand?" Giles asked, heading up to the stacks in search of some information source is he seemed just itching to read.

"Well, um, it was a girl ghost, I think," Amy remarked.

"A female apparition?" Giles queried.

"And the award for 'most convincing portrayal of a walking thesaurus' goes to..." Buffy said. 

"How do you know?" Giles asked Amy, not rising to Buffy's bait. The Slayer, looking disappointed that her Watcher just ignored her witty comment, sulked her way over to the table. She decided to shorten her trip to one of the remaining chairs by plopping herself down on Xander's lap, an accommodation they enjoyed equally, judging by the smiles they sent each other's way before turning their attention back to the conversation.

"It's a girl thing. We know what we know," Amy answered. Jesse rolled his eyes, careful to make sure his girlfriend didn't notice. "Besides, the crazy laugh was a dead give-away."

"It-it laughed?"

"Look, in the hallway!" Jesse exclaimed. "It's a Watcher! It's a librarian! It's ... Repeato-Man!"

Giles shook his head in irritation, while the teens smirked and tried not to laugh. "Haven't you anything useful to contribute?"

Buffy slouched back onto Xander's shoulder, crossing her arms and pouting her lip off. "How come Jesse gets the dry wit and I just get ignored for basically the same joke?"

Xander gave her a quick smooch on the cheek before answering. "Because Jesse has a quality of annoyance that you in no way possess."

"Phooey."

"It seems we have a haunting," Giles pointed out, beginning to pace in front of his teenage cohorts. "Not surprising, considering the environment," Putting his spectacles back on, Giles turned on his heel to face the group. He took on a authoritarian tone as he began issuing orders. "Jesse, the school's archives are in the back," he pointed at the second aisle from the right, in the elevated stacks level, "um ... middle stack on the right. Look for any references to-to mysterious deaths in the particular area of the school where you, er, had your encounter. Go as far back as possible. Amy, you remember where the books on exorcism are, yes?" The girl nodded. They'd done a lot of similar research when Buffy had been possessed over a month before. Giles turned to his Slayer. "Buffy, you and Xander should continue with your training. And this time, allow him the opportunity to test his defensive postures against a-a preternaturally strong opponent. He needs to-to..." Giles trailed off when he glanced at Xander.

The young man was trying not to be too obviously smug as he kept his eyes pointed up, examining the ceiling. Giles sighed in exasperation. "Yes. And how long exactly were you going to let me talk before you rendered everything I said irrelevant?"

"But you were having so much fun!" Xander burst out with a chuckle. "Ever since I've been here you've been neglecting your Watcher-ly duties."

Giles was indignant in his response. "I beg your-"

"It's true, G-Man," Jesse input. With a glare, the Watcher showed Jesse just how much he appreciated that nickname. "It's basically been: big threat comes along, you ask Xander what's the what, we all go kill the bad things. I'm tellin' ya G-Giles," he corrected at the last second. "Xander might as well be getting your paycheck."

"Can I cast my vote for that option?" Xander asked. 

"Me too!" Buffy's hand shot up. "I'd really like 'gourmet' to mean something other than TGIFriday's second most expensive pasta meal.

"And by a majority of Slayerette votes, the man in tweed is fired. I'll expect your resignation on my desk by tomorrow morning, Rupert."

In order to keep his sanity intact, Giles simply ignored their good-natured laughs. If I respond, it will just perpetuate the torture "Then what precisely are we dealing with here, Xander?"

"I don't know," Xander responded. "I kinda like hearing you guys guess. But, since that big ol' vein on Giles' forehead is about to burst, lemme just say two words: 'invisible girl.'"

"Well, at least it's not a ghost," Jesse said, then quickly added, "Not that I'm afraid or anything." Amy patted him on the hand sympathetically.

"How did she come to-to-to acquire that ... interesting ability?" Giles questioned, and everyone perked up to hear Xander's explanation.

"It's ... not a good thing," he said with a frown. "She disappeared because she was a loner that noone paid attention to. And living on a Hellmouth like we do does weird things."

"She was a student?" Amy wondered.

"Yeah. Marcie Ross. The girl everyone had a class with, but noone remembers."

"Does she have any malicious plans?" Giles wanted to know.

"Well," Xander said with a small grin. "Oddly enough, she wants to mutilate Cordelia for the end of school dance."

"So that's a no, then?" Jesse observed, with an equally devious smirk. Notable by its absence was any rebuke from Amy for his comment.

"That's kind of sad," Buffy lamented. "I mean, what worse way for everyone to say 'Hey, we don't care about you. At all.'" She turned her head to look at her boyfriend. "Can we help her? Like, can we send her to an 'Up With Invisible People' help group?"

"In a word? No," Xander replied. "Y'know the few bricks that she's short of a load? Well, she uses the ones she has left to break things. She tried kill us all!"

"Then whatta we do? Commit her?" Jesse speculated.

Xander blinked in surprise, and considered Jesse's thrown-out suggestion. "Huh," he said. "Can't believe I didn't think of that. Crazy house for the crazy person. You may have something there Jess-ter."

"And the fact that she's invisible?" Buffy asked.

"Enter the Watcher-man and his great collection of demony knowledge," Xander swept his hand around the room, indicating the many shelves worth of relevant books. "We un-whammy Marcie then ... I don't know, tie her up and drop her on the asylum doorstep."

"W-Well, before we go off and-and commit someone against their will, I suggest we concentrate on breaking whatever enchantment has befallen this girl," Giles proposed. "Then we can decide her fate."

"Goody. I always wanted to play God," Jesse piped up.

"Good," Buffy spoke up. "We've got a plan, and the end of school dance isn't for another month. It's all good," She shifted herself so that she was able to look down at Xander. "Unless there's anything else you'd like to share, Xand?"

Uh oh. I know that voice. That's 'pissed off cuz I left her in the dark' Buffy, a close relative of 'Xander's in deep dog doo' Buffy And when that scrutinizing version of his girlfriend came out to play, Xander knew that his voice couldn't be trusted.

It betrayed him again on this occasion. "W-no. I mean no. No's what I said." D'oh!

"'kay," she replied simply, as she stood up from his lap leaving a delightfully warm spot.

For a moment, Xander actually thought he'd gotten away with his stammered answer to her question. Though it is only a couple weeks away-

"Giles is right. We need to get back to training. I'll attack this time," the Slayer ordered, slipping into an appropriate attack stance right in front of him.

Uh oh again "I think we've done enough today. Right Giles?" Xander went to the Watcher to be saved from experiencing Buffy's wrath.

No help was forthcoming. Xander hadn't fooled anyone else in the room, either. "I don't see what you want me to do. I'm a simple former-Watcher, after all."

Xander laughed nervously. Who'd have thought that would've come back to bite him so quickly?

"Come on, Xand, don't be shy," Buffy grabbed his right arm and easily lifted him out of his chair. She all but dragged him to the padded mats they'd been sparring on previously, Xander struggling against her all the way. "Oh, don't be such a big baby," she teased in response to his resistance.

Xander knew he was in some serious trouble. Jesse and Amy were taking an inordinate amount of pleasure from his predicament. Giles had removed himself from the dispute by burying his nose in a book behind the circulation desk.

"Ready?" Buffy asked with a too-large smile on her face, back in her fighting posture again.

Xander was just able to make an 'n' sound before Buffy snapped off a kick aimed at his head. He was just able to get his forearm up to absorb most of the impact, and probably cause a bruise. He wasn't exactly ready to fight, though, and he stumbled over his own feet at the substantial power Buffy had laid into him with. The next thing he knew, Buffy had him on his back again. OK, that's it. It's not worth the pain "Nightmares," he groaned.

"I'm sure it is," Buffy replied. She stepped next to him and kicked her leg up straight in front of her, and right over Xander mid-section and quickly started bringing it down toward his gut.

Taking a quick, deep breath, Xander hurried out, "There's a kid that's gonna be put in a coma and it's gonna make everyone in Sunnydale experience their worst nightmares!" He heaved in another breath after he finished his breathless explanation.

Mercifully, Buffy was able to stop her leg's downward momentum about an inch away from his body. She hopped back and crouched down to help Xander up.

"You're mean," Xander complained, rubbing his forearm where Buffy had kicked him.

The Slayer winced when she noticed his discomfort. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to hit you so hard." In penance, she lifted his hurt arm and pressed a soft kiss to the spot he was rubbing. Buffy smiled as she kept tenderly attending to the underside of his arm. It was a pleasant dichotomy that the hands massaging his aches and pains away could easily snap his arm in two if she wished. "Better?" she asked in a sugary voice. Xander thought he heard Jesse and Amy rolling their eyes.

Xander mock-gasped. "Wow. The pain is gone. Not!"

Buffy lowered her voice so that only Xander could hear her. "Well, you haven't gotten your birthday present yet. Maybe that'll help." Try as he might, Xander couldn't divine her intentions. Her voice wasn't exactly suggestive, but it wasn't exactly deadpan either.

That, he decided as they returned to the table and started his exposition on the consequences of a young boy being beaten into a coma on the Hellmouth, was fine with him. I love surprises

  
  


Marcie was on another covert operation, and she was not happy.

When Amy called her laugh crazy, Marcie was a little perturbed.

When Xander called her a few bricks short of a load, the invisible girl started to silently seethe.

Marcie's breaking point was almost achieved, though, when they started talking about committing her to a madhouse. She was a hair's breadth away from grabbing that axe-spear thing in the open book cage and going to town on those, those slut bitches and their bastard boyfriends. But then Buffy and Xander had started fighting, or something, and Marcie had thought that maybe they were going to kill each other. That would've made her job easier.

Then they'd started talking about something else. Nightmares. Some kid was going to get beat up by his baseball coach What an idiotic game. Goddamn playboy pitcher too stuck up to talk to me. Bastard Marcie thought, remembering the time she'd been ignored by Sunnydale's 'star' pitcher after a game she'd watched last year. The kid gets knocked into a coma and it causes everyone's nightmares to come true.

Wouldn't effect me Marcie thought. I already am living a nightmare An invisible grin crossed her face. But they aren't...

If she weren't trying to stay covert, Marcie would have started giggling again. 

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


April 25, 1997

7:50 PM

Wilkens Recreational Park

  
  


The underhand pitch floated in over the plate, its velocity barely enough to carry it to the catcher's mitt. However, as the fielding team had learned all day, this particular batter didn't allow many balls to get by him. With a solid, slightly up-angled swing of the aluminum Louisville Slugger, the softball changed its direction in an instant.

The line drive sought out the gap in left-center field, and split the two eleven-year old outfielders who ran over from their positions to chase it down. By the time one of them got their hands on it, the hitter was already halfway between second and third base. The infielders made sure to stay very far away from the charging runner. Another thing they'd learned was that this guy didn't care if someone was in his way.

It wasn't fair, really. In a league of eleven to twelve year olds, a fourteen year old ruled supreme. The mini-league rules used to disqualify such players. At least until the rich parents of a kid who'd failed three grades in his short academic career threw their weight around, and had the rules changed to build teams around what school grade the players were in. Therefore, big, dumb Chuck 'Bulldog' McAfer was allowed to play, and consistently beat up on whatever team he played.

Such was the cutthroat world of Little League Baseball.

Jesse, Xander and Willow watched from the stands, preoccupied with another less than savory aspect of the sport. They watched as the coach of the fielding team rip his hat of his head and throw it into the dust at his feet. He was yelling, but they were too far away for it to make any coherent sense.

"I don't get it," Willow said. "I mean, aren't they still winning?"

"That was the tying run, Wills," Xander explained. "And it's the bottom of the last inning, with nobody out. In kiddy league, that's pretty much means the team batting is gonna win."

"Oh," Willow frowned and slumped her shoulders. "It's a real downer knowing who's gonna win and lose before the game's even over."

"Well that's awfully defeatist of you, Wills," Jesse scoffed. "The way I look at it, is the game ain't over 'till the boo birds stop singing. See, watch," he said as a new batter approached the plate. Cupping his hands around his mouth, Jesse started chanting, "Baaaaaaaaaatter!! Baaaaaaaaaatter!! ..."

"Jesse, for the love of God, stop," Xander said frantically. "You're going to start a riot, man."

Jesse stopped momentarily to glance at Xander, then his eyes widened and his face paled when he looked down at the angry glares several pissed off parents were sending his way. "Heh, sorry folks," he said sheepishly, before getting up and finding a seat above and behind Xander and Willow, who smiled at each other before turning back to watch the game. Xander noticed that Willow stared at him a little longer than he did her. He frowned. Willow's flame for him, though significantly extinguished, still burned.

At least we're talking like old times Xander tried to find a bright spot, but it was soon dulled as well. The only reason Willow was more outgoing at the moment was that very 'old times' nostalgia he'd yearned for. The problem was his nostalgia revolved around the close mutual friendship between himself, Willow and Buffy, while she probably missed the times when it was Jesse instead of Buffy.

His girlfriend hadn't come along tonight. She'd certainly wanted to, but she'd had a previous engagement: her mother, prompted by Buffy's father's visit in a week's time, had been struck by a sudden desire for a mother-daughter weekend. Besides, Xander had said, the Slayer wasn't really needed to deal with a vengeful little league coach. Similarly, Amy and her father had developed a much closer relationship since her mother had been magicked away, and every other weekend they went out to do something fun: it was a expo one town over this time. Oz was practicing with his fellow band-members, working on their first serious song.

The 'clink' of the aluminum bat brought him out of his brooding. A cheer went up from half of the crowd below them, while the other half remained hopefully silent. The ball had been whacked into the same area of the ballpark, but the runner this time was slower than the previous one, and the ball not hit as far. As the center-fielder fielded the ball, the runner was just rounding second.

As the base-runner reached third, the thrown ball bounced into the infield. The second baseman ran over is that a number 19 on his jersey? and grabbed the ball on the second bounce. Xander felt a wave of great sadness wash over him. The kid's gonna screw up, but it's not like he's not trying Number 19 spun around and relayed the ball home, but, in his haste to get it out of his hands, the throw went very wild, well to the left and above home plate.

The opposing team's bench broke out in whoops and cheers as the winning run scored, with the occasional mean-spirited laugh at the distraught number 19's expense. 

"Oh, that's so sad," Willow noted. Xander and Jesse nodded in a agreement. "Why can't they all just get along and-and shake hands like-like not-mean people do?"

"Preachin' to the choir, Wills. Remember when me and Jess couldn't make the Little League team when we were that age? I mean, even Jimmy Connoly with the gimpy leg made the team!"

"It's all just a big popularity contest," Jesse added, sour grapes seeping through into his voice.

Half an hour later, the sun had nearly set, and most of the players and their families had left to celebrate or mourn the game, and get ready for the next meeting. Only one boy, still wearing his number 19 jersey, remained, apparently waiting for someone to pick him up. Xander, Willow and Jesse also stayed, hiding in the growing darkness under the bleachers, and waiting for the badness that Xander assured them was to come.

"Billy!" a gruff voice called out into the otherwise quiet evening. The three teenagers turned toward the source, a large, shadowy figure standing beside the dugout. "Come 'ere, son." 

Billy turned fearfully to the voice. Xander could see the boy trembling as he reluctantly started walking toward the dugout, looking over his shoulder, hoping to see his ride arriving. The boy was not so blessed, however, and resignedly marched toward his coach.

"What a monster," Willow said breathlessly. It seemed to be just sinking in that the horrible things that Xander told them would happen, were actually occurring before her eyes.

"Come on," Xander whispered as he stepped out from the shadows-

-and walked right into a baseball bat, swinging at his stomach.

Xander was unable to defend himself from the strike, and he doubled over as the wind was knocked out of him. He was pummeled to the ground as his back was hit three time by his attacker, who he still hadn't laid eyes on yet. One final swing to the back of his head caused him to black out, and the last thing he heard before falling unconscious was a string of chuckles he vaguely recognized from somewhere.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


8:45 PM

  
  


When Xander woozily came back to the land of the living, he found that his ears were still ringing. Either that, or he needed to turn the ringer off on his bedside telephone the next chance he got.

"Xander! Thank God!"

Jesse? "Jesse?" he moaned as his eyes started to flutter open.

"Yeah, man, ya had us worried there for a while. You're bleeding all over the ground!"

"Whhhhy?" he wondered, the dots in his mind's eye still looking like just a bunch of dots without any lines connecting them.

"We got whacked by our invisible girl, I think. Either that, or floating bats are real, Charlie Brown!"

"What, bat? Marcie?" the puzzle pieces finally clicked together. "Why would she attack us?" Xander sat up. "And where's Willow?"

Jesse was crouched down next to him. "She's calling the gang, since she's the only one who remembers their phone numbers. She got walloped herself, but she didn't take a nap like you did. We managed to get Marcie what's-her-face to go away, but not before..." he trailed off, and frowned as he motioned with his head toward...

Xander followed Jesse's line of sight toward the dugout. Ohh ... crap He grabbed the edge of the bleachers to aid in lifting himself up and then shook out the cobwebs still obscuring his mind. Jesse followed him as he walked toward the dugout.

"I already called an ambulance," his friend told him, quietly.

He knew why, and the grisly sight that greeted him at the dugout confirmed it. Billy lay face-down on the ground, his arms sprawled out on either side of him. The boy's head rested on its side, and the half of his face that Xander could see was black and blue with bruises. 

Xander let his shoulders sag as he leaned against the chain-link fence separating the dugout from the baseball field. He'd failed. Again. His scorecard was sure starting to shift to the screw-up side of the success spectrum.

"So," Jesse tried to make conversation. "Our worst nightmares, huh?"

Xander nodded. "Yup."

"That sounds like it'll suck."

"Yup."

A pause. "D'oh."

"Ditto."

  
  


End XIV

  
  


Feedback would be grrrrrrrreat!


	11. Dream A Little Nightmare (1/2)

Chapter XV - Dream A Little Nightmare

  
  


May 1, 1997

1:15 PM

SHS Library

  
  


The four inch thick book slammed onto the table with a loud crash, shaking the normally sturdy oak table under its impact. Xander and Willow were startled from their tasks by the resounding interruption, and even Giles emerged from his office to investigate the racket that had arisen.

They glared at Jesse for his unwelcome intrusion. "And with that," he referred to the discarded volume he'd tossed on the table. "We have reached the perfect score of zero for a gazillion."

"So you decided to celebrate by killing the table?" Xander asked.

"Well, I considered throwing myself off a cliff, but seeing as how I dreamed of doing that sometime last year, it'll probably happen soon enough," Jesse dropped himself into his seat, cradling his face in his hands. "Lousy 'Roadrunner' reruns!" he moaned. Amy walked up behind him with her own book and patted her boyfriend on the back.

"There, there," she ineffectively comforted.

"Yes, take heart, Jesse," Giles added, stepping completely out of his domicile of solitude and snapping closed the book in his hands. "From what little we've been able to learn, it appears that nightmares with more, er, personal connotations w-will be brought to life. Such as the one Buffy is apparently dealing with at the moment," Giles motioned to the library doors, where the Slayer and her 'father' had left through a few minutes ago.

"And the worms in my cereal this morning?" Amy commented with a shudder.

"And losing an hour in the middle of an important surprise test?" Jesse added glumly, recalling the nightmarish experience he and Buffy had gone through in history class before lunch.

"Yes, um, fairly harmless occurrences."

Willow picked up the explanation. "At least until nightmare land completely merges with our world. Then, all bets are off."

"Great. So I'll only get killed in a really personal way. Thanks loads guys," Jesse let his head fall out of his hands until it collided with the table top. "Owwwwww. Why couldn't my great-uncle that I've met twice in my life *actually* die?"

Xander stared at the book in front of him, trying not to look too guilty. When the topic of what everyone's nightmares were going to be came up, Xander had been utterly unprepared when Jesse asked about what was in store for him. And Amy and Oz for that matter. They weren't exactly around when that had happened in his time. So, impulsively and on the spot, Xander wove a pack of lies that he thought was very impressive, in addition to being very wrong. He'd picked a relative of Jesse's he knew his friend didn't know well, said they croaked and that the funeral was in Fresno. And, well, Amy would of course go with her boyfriend to said relative's funeral wouldn't she? And Oz could have been out of town on band-related business, couldn't he? Apparently they all thought so, as his falsehoods went unnoticed. It helped that Buffy had spoken up and changed the subject. God bless her - she knew how awkward it would be to relate to Jesse the story of his death.

"So," Xander spoke up, again to divert attention from the untruths he'd fed the gang. "Any progress on the invisible girl front, Mr. Watcher Man?"

Giles frowned, and Xander knew the answer. As prepared as the Watcher was for most supernatural phenomena, unpopularity-induced invisibility was 'somewhat beyond the pale,' as Giles had described it. 

They had, of course, gone looking for Marcie, but the loft above the music hall where she lived had been deserted. Only one thing gave away the fact that she had been there at all: carved in the floor had been the word 'Cordelia', though the printing was barely discernable since it was marred by countless nicks and chipped off bits of wood. It would have been pretty funny in its stereotypical expression of petty hatred if it hadn't been just as disturbing.

With that avenue of investigation leading to a dead end, Xander had decided to approach Cordelia herself. He might as well have tried convincing a deaf mute. It had taken a couple minutes just to ride out the domineering cheerleader's obligatory opening string of insults. Then, when he tried to ease into the subject of the weirdness that was Sunnydale, she kept brushing off his explanations, like so much lint clinging to his polyester sweater which Cordy was unkind enough to deride in the middle of her other derisions. Following similar attempts by Willow, Amy and Buffy, which fell just as flat, the group's focus returned to preempting Marcie. Accordingly, they hit the books, searching for a remedy to the invisible girl's problem. Her physical problem, in any case.

They might have found a solution, in time, if they didn't have the impending 'nightmares' dilemma to worry about, and take up much of their researching time. It was the general consensus that Marcie had planned it that way, and that she would use the chaos and distraction the nightmares caused to exact her revenge on Cordelia and her covey. Not a terrible plan, for someone whacked out of their gourd

"Oz is watching Cordy and co?" Jesse asked. Despite Cordy's disagreeable attitude, it wasn't as if they could just leave her to Marcie's not-so-tender mercies. Currently, Oz was on Cordelia-watching duty. He didn't have any problems with the May Queen ripping into him for following her around, since she barely knew him and his mere existence was probably a mystery to her.

"Yes," Giles responded. "And judging by your experiences this morning, it appears events are beginning to converge. If-if-if Marcie is planning to take advantage of the situation, she'll strike ... soon," the Watcher said the last word after a confused pause. The teenagers in the room watched as Giles squinted at the cover of the book in his hands. He moved it closer to his face, then pushed it away. "I-I..." He whipped his spectacles off and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his fist.

"I think it's safe to say that Giles can't read anymore," Xander observed.

"How's that for a converging event, G-Man?" Jesse asked with a smirk.

"Huh. That's kinda funny," Willow said, but withered under Giles glare. "Y'know, with the-the talking about it and then it, y'know, happening? Ironic?" she substituted. Still with the glaring. Willow shook her head. "No. No, not funny, or, or ironic." Sighing, Giles stomped, in a remarkably dignified manner, up to the stacks.

"So to summarize," Jesse said. "Giles is suddenly illiterate, Amy's munching worms, Buffy's getting disowned, Oz is living the nightmare that is looking after Cordy, Willow's babbling, Xander's clueless, and I'm looking forward to two or three grisly deaths today. And, and, we still have half a day of school left. This couldn't possibly be any worse."

"Did Giles just go up into the stacks?" Amy asked, apparently remembering something that Xander had said.

Xander snapped his head around to the bookshelves. "Giles?" There was no answer. "G-Man?" Still nothing.

Willow groaned. "Did he actually just get lost up there?"

Xander didn't answer. He was too busy ripping a piece of paper off the large note pad the gang had been using all morning to jot down relevant information. It had gotten precious little use.

"It's all right, though, cuz he'll find his way out ... eventually, right?" Amy asked.

Xander balled up the paper and turned on Jesse, chucking it at his shame-faced friend. The ball pinged off Jesse's forehead, and he crossed his eyes in an attempt to look at the point of impact. "You think if I punched you, your eyes would stay like that?" Xander asked, frustratedly.

As Jesse corrected his line of sight, Amy said, "Could you not? I don't wanna be dating the school freak show."

Xander and Willow didn't say anything after that, deciding to keep the obvious retort to themselves.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


SHS Quad

  
  


"I came by early," Hank Summers said to his frowning daughter as they walked across the freshly cut grass covering the spacious courtyard in front of Sunnydale High School. "because there's something I've needed to tell you. About your mother and me. Why we split up."

The Slayer felt something between apprehension and anger as she listened to what Xander assured her was a doppelganger of her father broach a subject she had obsessed over ever since her parents' divorce. Sure, they hadn't exactly been the model of marital bliss prior to the day she discovered her evil-fighting destiny. But, Buffy suspected that her parents' marriage had been dealt its death blow by her gym-fire-related expulsion. After that, their fights, once merely unpleasant, turned down right venomous. And the rest, as they say, was history.

"Honey? Honey, are you even listening?" Hank pestered her. 

Buffy looked up at her not-father, and couldn't think of a single thing to say. Xander had told her to just let the nightmare run its course, and come back to the library where they could regroup with the rest of the gang.

"Buffy," the man before her said again, in a restrained tone, the one she recognized as his 'quiet anger' one. Why does this ... thing have to be so much like him? "Sit down, Buffy."

She did, smiling faintly when she recognized the bench she perched herself on as the one Xander had asked her out from. All her good humor vanished as she listened to her father.

"You see, this is what I'm talking about, honey. You're the reason your mother and I had to get divorced. Raising you, trying to bring you up right ... it was just too much for us to stand."

"How can you say that?" Buffy asked, feeling her heart breaking, despite her knowledge that this was as fake as Harmony's hair color. She knew it was futile, but she had to fight back somehow, and she couldn't very well punch this facsimile of her father out.

"Because it's true," he answered, matter-of-factly. "I feel like I owe it to you to be honest, after lying to you all this time."

Buffy fought her closely-guarded insecurities, trying to logically assail this person's words and keep herself from giving him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She shook her head, at the same time denying his claims and trying to dry the tears collecting in the corner of her eyes.

The thing ignored her pain. "Well, geez, honey, how blind can you be? It would be obvious if you weren't so self-absorbed. You were always getting in trouble, embarrassing your mother and I to no end. I'm just glad I convinced your mother to take you in the settlement."

Buffy had to bite her bottom lip to keep from sobbing out loud. She couldn't lift her head to look at him. She knew she'd see that he was being completely sincere, and she didn't think she could handle that.

"Oh, come on, now, can't you stand a little constructive criticism? Remember, 'honesty is the best policy'? Or did that sail right over your head too? Gosh, y'know, it's sad that that doesn't surprise me."

Buffy hung her head further, sniffing back tears as she wiped at the ones already spilling down her cheeks.

The imposter sitting next to her abruptly stood up. "Well, look, Buffy, I don't have the time to sit here and watch you sulk. I scheduled a meeting that I don't want to be late for. Oh, and before I forget, these little weekends - they're pretty meaningless, don't you think? So, I won't be coming around anymore," Buffy remained seated while her father scooped his jacket up in the crook of his arm and walked behind her. She flinched when he laid a hand on her shoulder, but was slightly reassured he just squeezed it gently. He used to do that as a sort of 'good bye', after he'd comforted her when she was sad. Her relief was short-lived. "I really thought you'd turn out better." The hand on her seemed to become as ice cold and uncaring as the words had been. Buffy willed the hand to remove itself and sighed in relief when it did. She looked up and behind her, and witnessed her father walking away for her, never to come back to her...

Buffy wiped angrily at her tears, and stifled another sob. She was mostly upset with herself, for letting the stupid nightmare get the best of her. But it was so real. What if a little part of him actually feels that way? she wondered despairingly. 

She received a much needed distraction when she caught sight of a familiar face across the courtyard. Buffy blinked away her tears and saw that her first impression was correct. A chestnut brown-haired boy wearing a despondent expression stood stock-still, mindless of the students zig-zagging around him. Buffy had first seen him a couple days ago, and as far as she knew, Billy Palmer was still lying in a coma at the hospital.

Buffy blinked in surprise. Here she was, stewing in her self-pity and despair, and the remedy for her situation just appeared before her eyes. Maybe the Hellmouth was finally working for her.

As she sprang to her feet, Billy turned sullenly and started walking away. "Billy, wait!" The Slayer's view of the boy was obscured for a moment by a student nearly bumping into her. When the obstacle dodged out of her way, Billy was nowhere to be seen.

Buffy stopped in her tracks as her eyes searched the plaza. Nothing. The boy had vanished.

Suddenly she felt very depressed. Her not-father's callous words ... this latest near-miss ... the certainty that worse was to come ... it was all too much.

Buffy headed for the school, trying to keep her slump out of her shoulders. She knew who could help her with that.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


2:10 PM

2nd Floor Balcony, SHS

  
  


Oz really hated some people.

Well, maybe not hate. That was a fairly strong word to use for someone he barely knew. And it wasn't like old Mr. Oldcastle was ever at fault, it was just...

Who names their twin pit bulls 'Petunia' and 'Daisy'? Sometimes, irony went too far.

When Oz had been seven, he'd had a very bad experience with that dangerous duo. The two dogs had broken out of their wholly inadequate pen and chased him for three blocks, until he'd made it home, just in time to avoid their jaws, snapping at his heels.

This morning, on the way to school, which, to his dismay, he'd decided to walk to today, the supposed-to-have-been-put-down-ten-years-ago pair ran again. After him. Thank God he had longer legs now.

Oz leaned forward on the railing, trying to look casual as he listened to Cordelia and her friends talk about what he suspected was another student experiencing their worst nightmare.

"... so she was all like, 'omigod, omigod!' and she just ran right out of class," Aura related to her companions with disgust.

"Well, duh!" Cordelia Chase exclaimed. "I mean first, could anyone miss the World Class zit on her nose? It looked like the lights in the mall before Christmas, except without the green. And that skirt she had on? That last person I saw with that combination of pleats and plaid was getting off the bus from kindergarten - and even that little girl didn't have it hemmed to such an unflattering length."

"That length and flats made her legs look like tree stumps," Aura agreed.

"It was the baggy polyester sweater that did it for me," Harmony sniffed. "She looked like she'd been raiding Jesse McCormick's closet, and it added twenty pounds, easy. Not like she could afford that..."

Oz closed his eyes so that noone could see him roll them. Yup he thought. I really hate some people

The scream caused his eyes to pop open.

Oz immediately turned to the commotion, in time to see Harmony hit the ground about twenty feet below the balcony. His jaw dropped as he saw the terrible angle the impact jarred the blond's neck to.

Cordelia and her remaining associates screamed in horror as some of them scurried down the adjacent stairway to the ground below, Cordy included, while the rest ran back into the school, arms fluttering about in a bizarre show of panic.

The amateur musician made a move toward the stairs as well, but found himself surprised by a sudden force being applied to his upper body. If he didn't know any better, he could have sworn they were the palms of someone's hands. Oz put two and two together as he reeled back, and his body tipped over the railing as well.

Just as Oz was about to fall irretrievably into a very painful liaison with the grassy ground, he managed to grab onto a baluster, straightening and momentarily stopping his descent. When his plunging weight ripped his tenuous grip free, Oz fell straight down, landing feet first. He rolled forward as he landed, minimizing the potential for pain.

When he stopped his roll, Oz was flat on his back, heart pounding from the unexpected scare. When he lolled his head to the side, he got another fright.

He was looking right at Harmony's face, staring unseeingly back at him. Her ear was touching the front of her shoulder blade.

Oz made a horrified wheeze as he scrambled away from the unmoving body, feeling like he'd been dunked in a pool of filth from just looking at the horrible sight. 

As Cordelia and her pals reached Harmony, Oz felt himself being lifted to his feet. He was about to thank his unknown helper when he was spun around and hoisted up off the ground by the scruff of his shirt. When he looked down at the person manhandling him, he saw the pissed off face of the football team's nose tackle, Grant Greenwich.

"What the hell did you do to her, you little prick!?" he yelled, shaking Oz easily. Sometimes being small really bites Oz thought as he tried to process this new escalation in his worsening situation. Uh oh Grant was Harmony's boyfriend, and there was obviously an emotionally-charged misunderstanding in progress.

"Dude," one of Grant's more level-headed friends ran up. "What are you doin'?"

"He pushed Harm off the balcony!" he answered, turning his head to his friend for a second. Oz used that opportunity to take advantage of the one good thing about his shortness at this second. His knee was lined up just about perfectly with...

Grant howled with a man's pain and he dropped Oz as he bent over at the waist. Oz landed on his hands and knees, catching his breath. He heard a couple of Grant's friends hauling the pained big man away, which he was thankful for.

"Hey, you OK man?" Grant's friend asked Oz, helping him up. Oz nodded, still not able to speak without any labored breathing. "Didja see who pushed you guys?"

Oz shook his head. "No," he answered honestly. "Didn't see anyone," he added glancing up at the balcony, wondering if Marcie was still watching.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


2:20 PM

SHS Library

  
  


Oz was still smarting somewhat when he arrived at the library. Slipping away from the growing crowd had been fairly simple, as everyone that gathered was inevitably drawn to the massive freak-out Cordelia and her friends had been going through. Though he wished he could have brought her back with him, where she would be safer from Marcie with people who were aware of the threat, everyone's attention was focused on her even more than usual. Besides, even Marcie wouldn't be likely to attack when she was surrounded by so many people.

Everyone was sitting around the table when he entered, except for Jesse, who seemed to be even more restless than usual. He was hopping off the circulation desk as Oz pushed open the doors. Willow was sitting still, but Oz could see her hands clasped together and fidgeting under the table. Oz mentally added that little mannerism to his long list of Willow's endearing features. I am so pathetic he scolded himself. If it hadn't happened yet, it wasn't very likely to at all. Buffy and Xander were scrunched together in side by side chairs, and Buffy seemed to be almost leaning on him for dear life. Something 'nightmarish' must have happened to her. The fact that the Slayer seemed so shaken up was unsettling for Oz.

All eyes turned to the musician when he walked in. Jesse was the first to open his mouth, as was the case on many an occasion. "It's Oz! Oz is here!" he declared excitedly. "Whatcha up to Oz-man? How's the Cordy detail from hell goin'?"

Oz flicked his eyes over to the table's occupants, who were shaking their heads at Jesse's nervous energy. "Could be better. I just fell off a balcony, and Marcie killed Harmony, but otherwise..."

Everyone blinked. Then they blinked again, as they realized he wasn't joking. Then, the room was filled with voices as everyone tried to put their two cents in.

"Harmony's dead?" from Xander, with shock.

"Where is she?" from Buffy, with determination.

"I'm gonna die!" from Jesse, almost blubbering.

"She killed her?" from Amy.

"Are you OK?" from Willow, with worry. Oz almost felt himself smile. She wants to know if I'm OK! he thought with uncharacteristic exuberance. 

"This isn't supposed to happen," Xander said when the first wave of exclamations died down.

"Y'know, maybe you should get that tattooed on your forehead, and save the precious air you use up when you say that all the time!" Jesse shouted, his nerves getting seriously frayed.

Buffy shot up from her seat. "We need to do something. Us just sitting here is getting people killed!"

"What about Giles?" Amy asked.

"We could leave him a note," Willow suggested.

"We do seem to be running low on time,"Xander admitted sullenly.

Where *is* Giles? Oz wondered, and then asked out loud.

"He ... got lost," Xander said, tiredly.

"In the bookcases," Jesse added.

"And he hasn't found his way out yet," Buffy finished.

"Librarians have the weirdest dreams," Amy commented.

At least books aren't liable to maul you Oz thought.

"So, what do we do? Do we need to run great distances, cuz I'm all keyed up for that," Jesse said, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"We need a division of labor here," Xander proposed, calling on an apt comparison with his old and future carpentry work.

"Someone needs to get Cordy," Willow put in.

"Someone needs to find Marcie," Oz added, rubbing the back of his neck, where a dull pain was developing from his previous tumble.

"No," Buffy shook her head. "Where Cordy goes, Marcie goes. We just need to protect her, until we get rid of these stupid nightmares."

"Which is the other thing we need to do," Xander said. "We need to get Billy the astral spirit to Billy the coma patient and ... get everything all squared away there."

"How exactly do we do that, oh fearless leader?" Jesse wanted to know.

Xander stood up and turned to his girlfriend, placing his hands on his hips.

"I've gotta beat up Billy's boogeyman," Buffy said, frowning as she stared up at Xander.

Xander sighed. "And I've gotta protect Cordy."

"Oh God," Jesse groaned. "And circumstances once again tear our star-crossed lovers apart. Can I just say..." Jesse started a little play with his fingers, walking his right hand off an imaginary cliff, and then dropping it with an exaggerated slowness accompanied by a bomb-whistle until it landed with a Wile E. Coyote-esque splat in his other hand. Buffy and Xander just rolled their eyes at their friend.

"All right my fellow sidekicks," Xander announced. "Let's split up."

"Giles!" Willow exclaimed, and everyone turned their attention to the library's upper level, where the Watcher was standing, looking quite disoriented.

"Made it through the labyrinth, Theseus?" Amy asked the librarian. "He's Greek," she added quietly to Jesse, before he had a chance to be confused.

"More like geek," he muttered to himself, and received an feminine elbow in the ribs for his ribbing.

Giles looked back at the small number of bookshelves that filled his library. "That was quite possibly the single most ridiculous experience of my life."

"That's what you get for running with teenagers, Giles," Buffy remarked.

"Great timing Giles," said Jesse. "What's your poison: invisible chick or nightmares kid?"

The Watcher stared in confusion at Jesse. "Giles can come with me," Xander said. "I think our super-heroine can handle herself, right?"

"Don't worry, Xander," Jesse spoke up. "I'll watch her back."

Xander glanced at Jesse before turning back to his girlfriend. "So you can handle yourself alone, right?"

"You better mean that metaphorically," Amy whispered to her boyfriend, and he smirked as he wiggled his eyebrows at her playful menace. "I think I better keep an eye on you."

"Oz, you good to go?" Xander asked.

"As ever," the musician said simply, though he was privately chomping at the bit to get back at Marcie. Strange. I don't usually hold grudges

"Great. Wills, you'll come with us, kay?" Xander asked, though to Oz's ears it sounded strangely like an order.

Everyone else was heading for the door already when Willow mumbled to herself, "Stuck with you, more like it."

Only Oz was in earshot. He found himself thankful he didn't have a tranquilizer gun this time.

  
  


* * * * *

  
  


2:30 PM

Sunnydale High School

  
  


"Does anyone else have a feeling of horrible impending doom?" Jesse asked. He, Buffy and Amy were approaching the entry/exit of Sunnydale High, on their way to locate little Billy Palmer's astral body.

"Would you quit it already!" Amy demanded in irritation. "You've been whining and complaining all day! What happened to your testosterone overload? You don't see me acting like such a wuss, do you?"

"Oh no!" Jesse shouted, stopping in his tracks. "It's a nightmare! I'm turning into a sissy girly man!"

"On second thought..." Amy started, but was immediately cut off by Jesse.

"Don't even say it!"

"Guys!" Buffy interrupted, without turning around or stopping. Amy and Jesse saw they were falling behind the Slayer, so they picked up their pace. "Normally, I'd jump in and say something to poke fun at Jess, but for some reason, I'm not in the mood. We need to get this done before the crap really hits-"

Suddenly, Buffy was herself interrupted by a loud clanging noise from above her head. The little group looked up to see the vent hatch servicing this tributary of the main hallway rattling in its frame.

"-the vent?" the Slayer finished her previous utterance as the hatch shook with more and more violence, until it was finally knocked off its hinges. Jesse and Amy had to scramble backwards to avoid the falling piece of equipment.

For a long moment, the trio stood still, staring up at the newly opened hole in the wall, tensely awaiting whatever was about to emerge.

The small green being that came careening out of the vent with a screech took the three teens by surprise. When it landed on the vent cover, they had to look down to get a good look at it.

The creature stood barely a foot and a half tall, though its arms were at least as a foot long themselves. It was covered in green scales, from its clawed toes to its taloned, three fingered hands. A pair of proportionally-oversized, wing-shaped ears jutted out of the side of its scalp, lower than human ears would be. The creature's most noticeable and memorable feature, however lay on top of its head, stationed between those protruding ears. A tuft of sheer white hair, stretching from its forehead to the back of its head, created a truly bizarre visage.

Buffy had heard a lot of screams in her young life, ranging from the 'domestic disturbance' variety to the 'getting killed by an real, live demon' type. But she knew with utter confidence that the noise that came from Amy was something she had never heard before. It was like she gasped, shrieked and inhaled simultaneously.

"It's-it's-it's-" Amy stuttered.

"A gremlin?" Jesse asked curiously. He turned to Amy while keeping and eye on the little monster. "You fed him after midnight? What were you thinking?"

Amy ignored Jesse's comment as she quickly backed herself against the wall opposite the gremlin, which had been watching her ever since it had hopped out of the vent. Abruptly, it broke out into a razor-sharp-toothy smile and, with a tittering that sounded a lot like laughter, leapt through the air, directly at Amy.

Amy let out another scream, more full-throated this time. The gremlin's claws slashed through the air-

-and Buffy snatched the little monster out of the air, grabbing it by its mohawk, and hurled it back the way it came. The gremlin smacked into the wall and bounced onto the floor. Before the creature could recover, the Slayer flipped the vent cover on top of it and proceeded to jump up and down several times on the metal blanketed gremlin. Jesse gleefully added his weight to the effort, squashing the gremlin until its squeals of anger and pain finally ended.

"That was fun," Jesse said, "but since when did Slayer training include death by squishing?"

"Well, I ... I mean, there wasn't ... do-do I tell you how to do your job?" Buffy finally settled on that miffed retort.

"Aims," Jesse turned to his girlfriend. "You-"

He didn't finish, as he noticed Amy still had that terrified look on her face, and her eyes were focused above their heads. Buffy and Jesse looked up.

Jesse's height forced him to duck when he saw a pair of nasty looking clawed feet swinging at his head. Buffy tried to bat the gremlin out of the air, but it continued its swing out of her grasp.

"How the heck?" Buffy wondered as she followed the gremlin with her eyes, making sure to keep her head down. The creature was traveling along the ceiling. It had its clawed fingers dug into the ceiling tiles, until it swung its legs up and then it to sink those talons into the ceiling, allowing it to hang upside down, like a wingless bat.

"Buffy, behind you!" Jesse warned, pointing above and behind her. The Slayer spun around, and her eyes widened as she saw a horde of little gremlins hopping out of the vent. The movie monsters screeched and laughed in their high pitched tonalities when Buffy saw them. Then their irritating vocal emissions became the least of Buffy's worries, because the gremlins started to swarm around her. Jesse ran up and kicked one into the wall, but four more took its snapping, snarling place.

Forgotten by Buffy and Jesse, the gremlin hanging from the ceiling quickly swang its way over to Amy, who remained rooted to the floor in terror. With a screech, it dropped from its perch right onto the horrified girl's head.

Jesse's head snapped around at Amy's shriek. He jaw dropped in shock and fear at the sight of the gremlin clinging ineffectually to Amy's hair, ultimately being shaken off by the girl's frantic movements. But, even then, the green horror didn't give up, hopping to its feet and menacing her again. Amy finally gave up on showing courage and fled, running away down the hallway waving her hands over her head, as if she expected the gremlin to start scalp dancing on her again.

"Amy!" Jesse yelled. She was running away from him and Buffy, though considering the constant stream of gremlins flowing out of the vent, that was probably the best direction to go. A wet thwack arose from a Buffy-propelled gremlin hitting the wall. Jesse himself was preoccupied just keeping out of reach of the little nightmares.

And just when things couldn't get any worse, they did.

The bell rang. Buffy and Jesse stared at each other in alarm.

Grade school students, while procrastinators almost by nature, are unnaturally prompt when it comes to remaining in a classroom any more than absolutely necessary.

Barely three seconds after the siren rang out, doors on both sides of the hallway opened, and students started spilling out of classes. The normal chatter that usually accompanied such a mass exodus lasted as long as it took for several of the gremlins to turn their ire on the newly forming crowd. With that, the crowd became a mob, panic spreading faster than through a spooked herd of cattle. The doorways quickly became clogged with people pushing to get into the rooms and others trying the close the doors on the mini-menaces.

Buffy knew at once that things had spiraled completely out of control. There was no way to round up all the monsters now that they were tearing around after the terrorized students. Better cut them off at the source Buffy just hoped that *everything* got reversed when the nightmares ended. The stampede seemed likely to turn into a massacre at any moment.

"Jesse! Amy!" She called, as several students tried to turn her into part of the floor. They definitely got the worst of that encounter, as the girl with super strength simply shrugged them off. She shoved and pushed her way through the throng of teens in the last direction she saw Jesse, making sure to wipe the disturbing smiles off the faces of the gremlins she came upon. It was a good thing she'd worn her running shoes today.

After a minute, Buffy came to the periphery of the gathering, which had settled into a kind of ordered chaos moving in the opposite direction. The Slayer frantically scanned the hallway for her friends, and, that failing, turned to see if they would yet emerge from the crowd.

They didn't.

  
  


"Did you hear that?" Willow asked.

Xander, Oz and Giles stopped with the redhead and listened. The screams emanating from the other end of the school carried clearly to their ears. Several unnatural screeches were similarly heard. 

Buffy was the first thought Xander had, and felt guilty almost immediately, since of all the people who were apparently in danger, she was the best suited to handle it. But this sounded like it was, once again, some new twist on what he'd expected to happen. "Buffy doesn't need any help, right?" he asked the area in general.

"I shouldn't think so," Giles answered.

"She is super-girl," Oz added.

"And it was your idea to split up," Willow put in.

All good reasons. Lousy logic He sighed. "You guys are right," they started walking again, heading for the second-floor classroom Cordelia was supposed to be attending next. Chances were that she wasn't there, since she'd just witnessed the death of Harmony, but it was worth a shot. "Sometimes I get all ... hyper protective when it comes to Buff. First," he said, effecting a Mexican inflection. "You get de women, den, you get de worry, den-" Another feminine scream, louder this time, rang through the hallway, "you get-a goin'," he said, and then turned and dashed off away from his friends. "Cafeteria! Meet there!" he called as he ran by the wall of lockers and turned the corner.

"Xander, wait up!" Willow blurted, surprising Giles and Oz when she scurried off after their departing friend.

Giles didn't utter a word while Xander and Willow made their exits, stunned by their sudden departure from the agreed-upon plan. He sighed in frustration. Oz, meanwhile, was frowning as mightily as he ever had. Willow had gone chasing after Xander, who had gone chasing after Buffy. If a microcosm of their life was ever needed, there it was.

Oz let his gaze linger on the empty space Willow had just occupied before turning back to...

Noone.

Oz froze, startled, and then whirled around. Nothing.

Giles was gone.

"Huh."

  
  


TBC ... Next time, the nightmares. Really!

  
  


Oh, and ... I have no idea who owns the Gremlins. They're not mine, though.


End file.
